Community Chat

[Oznell]

Especially love the all-around brilliance of Benjamin Franklin, among the Founding Fathers.

He amazes, in that his accomplishments and interests are almost *too* numerous --  impossible to give justice to them even in a long historical tome!

His father, Josiah, had come to the colonies from England.  He made candles and soap, and had been a farmer and blacksmith.  Benjamin was his fifteenth child, one of 17.

Benjamin had no cushy legacy--  he exemplified the drive of the industrious middle class.  He had about 2 years of formal education.

HIs contributions to man's understanding of electricity might be the most famous of his scientific and technical pursuits.  But he invented everything from the highly complicated to the very simple, including the Franklin stove, bifocals, the lightning rod, the flexible urinary catheter, a library chair that flipped to become a stepladder (so handy in the book stacks), and on and on.

He declined to patent any of his inventions, reasoning that he had benefited from others' inventions in the past, so he was just "passing it on", so to speak.  Very revealing of his character.

He wanted to write, and got started as a teenager penning letters to a publication under the comical name "Silence Dogood".    Right there you can see what a wry and compelling character was the juvenile Franklin, right from the start.

No one is faultless, but how lucky for America that a mind like his was intimately involved in, among other things, helping draft the Declaration of Independence, and working with the other Framers, through the Constitutional Convention, to bring about the United States of America.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Independence Day.   

[meallen616]

Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams work on the Declaration of Independence.

[Sooner]

Brave men trying to make something out of a place and time and make a better life.  All of them risked their lives and everything they had.  Many brilliant decisions were made, bravery was a standard, and they left a remarkable legacy.  It also shows you what a well-educated mind can envision.

They were flawed individuals, people like us, and remarkable group all together.  David McCullough and others have written wonderful and informative books about many of them.  It helps place them in context for readers.

[Oznell]

Glad you mention David McCullough, @Sooner --  what a great resource for that time period and understanding these complex individuals.

Of Franklin biographies,  Walter Isaacson seems to have done a well-received treatment ( I haven't read it)  "Benjamin Franklin--  An American Life". 

For anyone interested in kids, who might, unfortunately, have all too little information,  this award-winning book sounds like it might be a good child's introduction to his inventive genius--

"Now and Ben"   by Gene Baretta

It could be a crafty, sideways method of getting a child interested in what he did later on.  I know when I was a kid, I would have been more interested in amazing inventions, and adventures, than in constitutional conventions and signed documents....  

[Sooner]

@Oznell Great!   AND let us not forget "Hamilton" by Ron Chernow!  If you enjoyed the musical, the book is a great read. 

You can get well-priced hard copies, paperback, Kindle, and I'm thinking about listening to the audio version soon. 

[Oznell]

Good suggestion, @Sooner !

[Still Raining]

I read once that when he was sharing a bed/room at an inn with Adams, they had an all-nighter about leaving the window open.  Made them so very human.

[Puzzle Piece]

Happy Fourth to All!  

Let's add "The Federalist Papers" to the fine list of readings.  

[Oznell]

Hear, hear, @Puzzle Piece -- original sources, the best!

[just bee]