Rating: 
Summary: History Comes Alive
Review: Although a 700+ page biography of a man dead 200 years sounds daunting, in this case nothing could be further from the truth. Franklin's story is an amazing one, which the author tells in a style both fast and entertaining. He never goes into more detail than the casual reader (me) would like, but gives just enough historical perspective and philosophical framework to place Franklin in his time. Franklin's life was so full and far-ranging that it couldn't be covered in less than 700 well-manicured pages. I found it compulsively readable, despite the size. Truly he lived in "interesting times" and showed himself to be a man equal to every challenge he faced -- and quite a few left to future generations.The true measure of a biography may be in getting the reader to CARE about the subject, and in this Brands succeeds unconditionally. Even from the distance of 200 years Franklin's inevitable passing hit me hard, moving me to tears of sorrow. THAT is good writing.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Bar none one for the best written historical books out there. The writer writes with authority and facts. It shows that the entire book was well thought out and planned meticuously. It's pleasure to read. I just wish the subject matter was more desireable. Every american does owe a great amount to Benjamin Franklin. He was a man that accomplished great things. And I'm sure that he was the first person to pat himself on the back every time he accomplished something. Taken from his writings and demeaner is could be said that he was a self-centered, pompous jerk. He was his own greatest fan and looked down on anyone he deemed intellectually inferior. But with that aside I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: The polymath who gave America a fine start
Review: Being a scientist and the son of a printer, I have always been intrigued with Franklin, the man who encompassed all my family's interests single-handedly. H. W. Brands' book is a wonderful addition to the school of knowledge of one of our most interesting founding fathers. Well written, this book is notably more readable than the typical arid biography. Especially laudable is Brands' coordination of simultaneous events in the colonies and Europe, which he relates in a clear, coordinated and concise manner, avoiding confusing backtracking in parallel timelines. Brands' theme in this book clearly tracks the arc of Franklin life, from loyal English colonial subject to American Revolutionary advocate. While building a strong career as publisher, Franklin manages to build an infrastructure of public works in Philadelphia, including library and fire department, a colonial postal system, and defense force against hostile Indians. All the while, he gains an international reputation as a scientist and philosopher, and late in life, statesman par excellance. Brands is to be commended for giving us this well sourced and detailed book, which clearly relates the amazing life of a complex and fascinating American.
Rating: 
Summary: A Man for All Seasons...Almost
Review: H. W. Brands is a relatively new scholar on the American history scene and he brings great energy and a worthy balance between academic research and common-man accessibility to his endeavors. This biography on the always-engaging Franklin is probably his best work to date. While full of admiration for its subject, the book does not hide the questionable actions in Franklin's life. Franklin emerges as a man of many talents and contributions, but not without discernible flaws that perhaps only add to the satisfaction one obtains from this inquisitive biography. My minor quibble with this book is that Brands displayed the opportunities to examine the dichotomy between Franklin's public life and his family relationships with greater intellectual depth but he did not adequately seize that chance. The clever contributions Franklin brought to scientific inquiry across many fields of study (before the fields of study sometimes truly existed) and his practical models of public institutions and associations will eternally be worthy of review and admiration. Certainly his work on behalf of building the American republic is also praiseworthy. Brands covers not only this familiar ground but also reveals some of the traits that enabled Franklin to become so accomplished. Not just ingenious, but personally captivating, subtly persuasive and grudgingly persistent was Franklin. His love of the written and spoken word and his empathy for the weaknesses of human nature allowed him to bring many people into his confidence. These charactersitics were particularly important America - and brilliantly employed by Franklin - in France during the revolutionary era. But alas, Franklin was clearly not a devoted family man, from early in life to old age. He did not shy away from doing what he thought right for him and for the other immediate or greater interests in which he was involved at the expense of his father and mother, his wife, his son and his daughter. His relationship - or lack thereof - with his wife Deborah and with his son William are contemplated but not thoroughly or critically examined by Brands. Franklin often mentioned that a republic could not be suitably maintained without virtuous citizens. One wonders if the current definition of virtue in the United States would have room for one so cavalier about family responsibility as Franklin. Would such a man be universally feted today - as Franklin was upon his return from Paris after negotiating the treaty ending the Revolutionary War - when he had basically abandoned his wife for the last quarter of their lives? What do we expect from today's leaders that was not expected at the start of the republic? Brands does not take us down this path. All in all, an interesting and entertaining work, much worthy of its accessible read, but just a bit lacking in the intellectual spark it might have lit.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting!
Review: H.W. Brands is a very good historian. This biography of Ben Franklin is really second to none. In these days when most biographers try to psychoanalyze their subjects with 21st century techniques, it is refreshing to read a work that focuses on the essence of biography: What did the person do and how well did he or she do it? Well done, Professor Brands. Thanks to you your readers will know more about Ben Franklin, his accomplishments, the scope of his interests and his contributions to America. Prior to this I always thought of Franklin as a stuffy sort. No more. He was a most learned man, a leading thinker of his day as equally at home in the capitals of Europe discussing issues of trade and government as he was at home in Philadelphia creating a new country. Long viewed as a great consensus builder, make no mistake. Ben Franklin was an ardent rebel, one who made a most dramatic contribution to the foundation of the United States.
Rating:
Summary: History Comes Alive
Review: H.W. Brands must have been a doozy back at school. Once given an assignment for a research paper I can see Brands asking "Can I do twice as many references as required?" I'm poking fun a little to make the point that this is a scholarly and well-researched portrait of Franklin. Brands doesn't seem to make any points that are not backed up by some written reference, and any time there is speculation Brands' language makes it clear that this is a thought extrapolated from available knowledge. I almost wanted to give the work 4 rather than 5 stars because my initial response was that although the book was good, I also thought that if there's anything this book needs, it's a little pruning. This biography is so exhaustively complete that there is little time to pause. ALL of the information is presented, and it got a little mentally tiring separating the wheat from the chaff. (Does this make me like the Emperor who informs Mozart his new opera has "too many notes"?) From the language of this book Mr. Franklin's early work in the printing business in Philadelphia comes across with as much force as his later participation in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. Brands gives us a good feel for Benjamin Franklin's standing in the world community - not only in Philadelphia and America, but also in Europe and around the world. We also get a little of a taste for Franklin's indulgences in woman and for the periods in his life when he was reluctant to assume the role of "family man". At the end when the great citizen Dr. Franklin passed away James Madison passed the news to the new congress and suggested that a National Period of Mourning be observed - a measure that must have been one of the first official acts of Congress to pass immediately and unanimously. The word quickly spread to France where their assembly also unanimously voted to immediately don black to mourn The First American. Among Biographies, in particular of our Founding Fathers, this one stands up well, and should for as long as people care to read about the amazing Benjamin Franklin.
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating story
Review: I thought I knew a lot about Benjamin Franklin before reading this book. However, I'm amazed by the thoroughness of this book. It provided an extremely interesting perspective on one of the key figures of the infancy of this great country. Thank you, H.W., for an excellent work.
Rating:
Summary: very good and underrated
Review: I thought this was a very good book. It is the only Franklin biography able to combine comprehensiveness with readability. Morgan and Isaacson present two different stories about Franklin; this one almost combines the two approaches.
If you have time to read only *one* Franklin biography, I would read this one.
Rating:
Summary: Ben Franklin was the prototypical geek
Review: The founding fathers have been in danger of becoming mere icons for some time now -- Washington the military man, Hamilton the royalist, Jefferson the renaissance man, and Franklin, the comic foil. "Yes, we must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately," Franklin quipped at the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But in this book, H.W. Brands lays out a broader, more important role for Franklin. Besides being the most famous American to the rest of the world, Brands argues, Franklin was the first American to recognize that the colonies could never achieve an acceptable freedom from Parliament within the British Empire, and would therefore have to fight to achieve full independence. He was also the prototypical geek. Though he lacked formal education, Franklin had an amazing ability to arrive at the truth of a subject through observation and experimentation. His contributions on electricity and heating (the Franklin Stove) are well known, but Brands covers others in fields from oceanography to physiology to opthalmology. An inveterate (if inexpert) chessplayer and skirt-chaser, Franklin's family life is fascinating and new to me. He fathered an illegitimate son, William, of an unknown mother before marrying Deborah Read; Franklin and Deborah raised him. Later, they would have a son (somewhat improbably named Francis Folger Franklin, and called Franky) who died of smallpox after the family failed to inoculate him, and a daughter, Sally. Franklin won William appointments as a deputy postmaster and later as royal governor of New Jersey, but when the revolution came, William sided with the crown. It was a blow to Franklin, who never reconciled with his son. He had a major role in raising William's illegitimate son, Temple, and another grandchild, Benjamin Bache (Sally's son). His relationship with his wife was also somewhat curious. In 1757, Franklin essentially moved to England to represent the Pennsylvania Assembly with the English government (then under George II -- he later would be the agent of Massachusetts, Georgia, and New Jersey, as well), while Deborah stayed behind. He would spend 16 of the next 18 years in London, and 8 of the following 10 in France, but Deborah stayed in Philadelphia. She claimed a fear of ocean travel kept her from traveling, and Franklin wrote her constantly, but it's a heck of a way to run a marriage. Franklin simplifies the biographer's job somewhat by the very volume of material he left behind. As a printer, he published Poor Richard's Almanac, and innumberable broadsides, pamphlets, newspaper articles, and memoirs. As a politician, he contributed to the Declaration, to several constitutions for the state of Pennsylvania (he was head of the Pennsylvania Assembly before the war, and 3 times president of the state after), and the the U.S. Constitution -- Brands credits Franklin with the compromise allowing state legislatures to elect 2 members each to the Senate, while the House of Representatives was elected by population (initial proposals would have had the Senate elected by the House). And as a celebrity, his letters were almost invariably saved, and provide insights into his remarkable perspective on the world. There's a vogue of Revolutionary era non-fiction right now, including David McCullough's "John Adams" (Adams disliked Franklin pretty intensely, so this might be a good pair to read), "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation," by Joseph J. Ellis, and "The American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson," but the history-minded geek will probably prefer The First American.
Rating:
Summary: An informative and entertaining biography
Review: There have been so many new biographies come out on Franklin lately that I had some difficulty deciding which one I was going to read, but I opted to go with this one, and I'm really glad that I did. I learned a lot, and found the book to be highly entertaining as well. I decided to read either the Morgan or the Brands rather than the Isaacson because I wanted to read a biography by a scholar rather than a journalist. I'm very happy with my choice.
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