Benjamin Franklin [Hardcover]

As I said, this one isn't bad, but why get it, when the Isaacson one is superior?

Benjamin Franklin; we know about the remarkable things he did, but how do we really know him as a man? That is Edmund S. Morgan's question. Through Franklin's letters, newspapers, discoveries, autobiography, and a certain disk entitled, the Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Morgan has been compelled to write this book to give the world a taste of who Franklin was. Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, full of curiosity and vigor. He always felt the need to explore the world around him and to study the things that most took for granted. He could often be found outdoors walking about, taking in the scenery around him. He had an uncanny ability to look at everyday things with surprise and inquisitiveness. This endowment is what drove Franklin to make so many advances in human knowledge. He also thoroughly enjoyed being in the company of good friends; playing chess, telling jokes, and singing songs. He was a very sociable and companionable man; he was always looking to help people. Franklin also had his own views of religion. When Franklin was young he did a lot of thinking and writing on his morals. He came to believe that "Sin is not harmful because it is forbidden, but it is forbidden because it is harmful...Nor is a duty beneficial because it is commanded, but it is commanded because it is beneficial." Franklin never attended a church regularly and didn't take kindly to the Bible, though he undoubtedly believed in God as the creator. Franklin did not believe in a God who divided his people into those he intended to welcome to heaven and those he would condemn to Hell. Franklin even went on to write a lengthy list of virtues in his autobiography part 2. He always tried to do what he thought God wanted of him; he always tried to help the public and the economy. Franklin married Deborah Read in 1730 shortly after his first son, William, was born. The mother of this son is still unknown. When Franklin was entering his forties, he began studying about and experimenting with electricity. Only one kind of electricity was known back then, and that was static electricity, the kind that produces a shock. In the 1740's a collection of Leyden jars for storing static electricity was sent to Franklin by an English friend. Without delay, Franklin started experimenting with it. He soon discovered that a metal rod with a pointed end would attract a spark from a greater distance than a blunt one. He then went on to suggest the experiment with the kite and the key to prove that lightning was electric. His experiment was successful, and suddenly he was famous. Though, that is certainly not the only thing Franklin would become famous for. He helped write the Declaration of Independence, secured the Alliance with France, negotiated the treaty of peace with England, and partook in the convention that drafted the United States Constitution to replace the Articles of Confederation. Franklin once wrote to his mother that when his life was over, "I would rather have it said, he lived usefully, than, he died rich." Franklin died on April 17, 1790. However, I feel saying that Benjamin Franklin lived usefully is a blatant understatement. Franklin was a man of great heart. He accomplished more things in his eighty-four years than most men could achieve in two-hundred. Benjamin Franklin was essential to the world.