Rating: 
Summary: Forget John Adams...
Review: There were 2 indispensable Americans in 1770s--Franklin and Washington. Both were the glue that held the revolution together. Adams may've started it; but to get beyond the New England firebrands required the Virginia gentlemen and America's most famous citizen. Today his reputation is dimmed somewhat because he was a generation (or two) older than all of the others, and never became president. No one contributed more,though, as this exceptionally well researched, and even better written book demonstrates. If you're interested in history--this is hard to put down, virtually a page turner. It's rather a shame that in the fad to reevaluate Revolutionary heroes, the recent Adams bio seems to be the one that has taken off. Franklin is more important--he provided the revolutionaries with national and international credibility. He negotiated with the foreigners. He was the person even Washington was willing to defer to. Read this great book and learn about the most famous early American.
Rating:
Summary: Better even than a David McCullough biography
Review: Elegant and witty in every sense. Brands does what David McCullough tries to do, but Brands fully succeeds: he puts us in the company of the living Franklin, and what company that is. Brands's style is completely modern, but is replete with wonderful 18th century rhetorical devices. It contains hundreds of sentences so delicious that one could spend months adding them to one's commonplace book. And yet one doesn't stop to do so because one is thrown into the next few sentences by the sheer narrative skill used to serve this ever fascinating personality. The book is even physically elegant, and the author (publisher?) rightly gives credit to the book's designer on the verso of the title page.
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Summary: Founding Father, but Human After All
Review: What a wonderful account of Franklin's life. Brands has captured the full picture of a life in this account. He aptly portrayed this founding father's public life in terms of the heroism Franklin so rightfully deserved, but the author also rightfully spoke of Franklin's failures as father and husband. It's so easy to glorify someone like Franklin without recognizing his weaknesses as an individual, but Brands set forth a study of this man and balanced both the good and the bad.
Here was an everyman who took common sense and added intellectual curiousity, a keen wit, and an inquiring mind and emerged as a leader of a generation. It is an inspiration to all of us to become the best people we can be. This account speaks of Franklin's sacrifices but also about his indulgences. It is the most balanced an account of a life that I have read in some time. It should probably be shared with McCullough's book on Adams which would show you the opposite side of the coin. I would suggest that anyone who is interested in 17th and 18th century America, read this account of someone who came from humble surroundings and changed the world.
Rating:
Summary: a fine biography
Review: This is a particularly fine, readable, and interesting biography of a man who was in the thick of the American revolutionary war's political and diplomatic struggles. Because Franklin was the oldest significant figure in the American revolutionary war, the story of his life gives a depth of understanding to the events that led up to that conflict and to the condictions in America, at least in Philidelphia, up to that point. Moreover, Franklin comes across as most charming, and that makes this biography a delight.
The First American is a good companion volumn to McCullough's John Adams. They naturally intersect, but they do not repeat each other. And while Franklin gets somewhat short shrift in McCullough's book, John Adams is similarly treated here. (The authors write from the perspective of their respective subjects, who evidently disliked each other.) Both books taken together provide a balanced history of these two great men. Not to say that one has to read John Adams to appreciate The First American: this book stands on its own.
I enjoyed Brands' book on Theodore Rooseveldt, but given the different natures of the two subjects, and the different times, these are very different books. If one word characterizes TR, it is "will" (or perhaps "action"). If one word characterizes Franklin, it is "wisdom". You may surmise therefrom which book will be better company for you.
Another special thing about this book is the selection of quotations from Franklin's writings, including his letters. These passages are worth reading and re-reading for the elegance and grandeur of his language.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding work!
Review: Brands has written a biography that is both immensely informative and wonderfully entertaining. He presents great amounts of detail but never allows the reader to become bogged down in it, and his fluid prose makes the book easily readable. Whether you know something about Franklin or nothing at all, this book will give you a solid understanding of the man's life and work. Franklin is history's greatest example of a well-lived life, and his story should be an inspiration to everyone. I strongly urge you to read this book: you will both learn something and be uplifted.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent, H.W. Brands, but ...
Review: A wonderful, thoughtful, and very thorough account of Dr. Franklin. I learned much from this biography, and would recommend it to anyone interested in the birth of the United States. I am an average reader, but I found myself re-reading, multiple times, some of the direct quotations of Dr. Franklin and others. Eighteenth century prose (use of the double negative) is quite different from Dr. Brands' in the 21st century. I would have preferred omission of direct quotes, with just a footnote on where to find them. Alternatively, he might have put the quotations in a different type face. In any event, Benjamin Franklin certainly was The First American.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating Life
Review: It's a wonderful account of how one man changes his world and ours. There are lots of interesting details in this story. If you want to know how America began...read this.
Rating:
Summary: long but excellent
Review: I don't usually read biographies of historical figures, but in the interest of personal enrichment I decided to read about one of the greatest Americans ever. The pace of the biography is even and keeps one interested, even one such as I who doesn't read historiography very often. Brands uses letters & memoirs of Franklin and his contemporaries. Those letters provide a fascinating insight into Franklin. Would that more people today had such an orderly, logical, mind and the ability to express it on paper. Franklin was not a perfect person. He had a child out of wedlock and was sometimes a bit bombastic. Franklin was enormously talented and had wide-reaching academic interests, but he wasn't showy about it; he had the ability to identify with all classes of people. I have learned a lot about colonial life and British imperialism. Many times during the reading of this book I was able to fill in gaps in my own knowledge about 18th c. America, like how taxation worked and how colonial governments were set up. A little lightbulb appeared over my head, and that's a rarity. I also came away with a deep appreciation of the amount of work it must take to put together a biography like this. If you want to know more about Ben Franklin and aren't afraid of a long read (approx. 750 pages) by all means pick this one up. It's far from boring and you will learn a lot. Keep a dictionary handy, as Brands flexes his vocabulary quite a bit.
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Summary: A Man for All Seasons
Review: Franklin's was a life well lived and this book captures the essence of the man who lived it. I found more to Franklin than I bargained for and then some. You may already know some of his accopmlishments but it is hard to understand the size of the contribution to this country and to science. This historical story does it very well. Franklin the creator, the loyalist turned radical, the inventor, the philosopher - citizen and his influence and role in bringing the French to our revolutionary cause is alone worth the read of this book by Brand. The re-telling of the story of the 'hat'...brings to life his sense of humor. What I would not have done to spend some time with this origional conversing in his library. If you want to know more on Franklin's role in the writing of the Declaration of Independence & contribution to the committee may I sugget American Scripture by Maier or Creation of the American Republic by Wood. However, if you want to know Franklin the man, read this engaging tale of an origional American. You will not regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, pedantic
Review: I really wanted to like this book ... Franklin is truly one of the great figures in American history. However, BF's achievements are buried under a pedantic writing style. Brands keeps telling the reader how great Franklin is, rather than letting the subject demonstrate this fact. I found myself skipping over a lot of the "middle part" and waiting for the Revolution to begin.
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