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Founders: #115 Ben Franklin: An American Life

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What I learned from reading Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson. ---- He was, during his 84 year long life, America’s best scientist, inventor, diplomat, writer, and business strategist. [0:01] On Founders #62 I covered Ben Franklin’s autobiography [4:10] The family produced dissenters and nonconformists who were willing to defy authority, although not to the point of becoming zealots. They were clever craftsman and inventive blacksmiths with a love of learning. Avid readers and writers, they had deep convictions, but knew how to wear them lightly. [5:00] The industrialist Thomas Mellon, who erected a statue of Franklin in his banks headquarters, declared that Franklin had inspired him to leave his family's farm and go into business. "I regard the reading of Franklin's Autobiography as the turning point of my life. Here was Franklin, poorer than myself, who by industry, thrift, and frugality, had become learned and wise, and elevated to wealth and fame. The maxims of poor Richard exactly suited my sentiments. I read the book again and again, and wondered if I might not do something in the same line by similar means." [13:10] Franklin is learning how to deal with

[00:00:00] Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us. George Washington was the austere general. Jefferson and Adams were intimidating. But Ben Franklin, that ambitious urban entrepreneur, seems made of flesh rather than of marble. He speaks to us, through his letters and autobiography, not with rhetoric, but with a chattiness and clever irony that is very contemporary. We see his reflection in our own time. He was, during his 84 years, America's best scientist, inventor, diplomat, writer, and business strategist. He proved by [00:00:43] flying a kite that lightning was…

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