Thoughts on Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

Just finished this book by Walter Isaacson. Now my third Isaacson book. Such a big fan — he is awesome. Jobs, Einstein and now Ben Franklin. I want to read his book on Da Vinci sometime soon.

Ben Franklin was crazy

Isaacson does a special job diving into these people’s lives, personalities, accomplishments, shortcomings and all else.

This book gave me a really great idea about who Benjamin Franklin was. While it was interesting by itself, it was also super useful.

He did so much in his life

Franklin accomplished a gargantuan amount of things in his life.

He was an inventor, creating the lightning rod, bifocal glasses, fins for your feet to swim, The University of Pennsylvania, the words ‘plus and minus’ on batteries, and basically daylight savings time, among other things.

He had a huge printing press that essentially helped get mail exchanged between all of the American colonies for the first time.

He also did a ton for the American cause around the revolution with Britain. He signed the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Paris, and the US Constitution. He also helped make all of those things happen. Especially the treaties with Britain and France.

He was essentially the person that helped secure France as an American ally while we were fighting Britain, and then he was able to scheme and create a treaty with Britain a little bit behind France’s back, when France and Britain were fighting, and France didn’t get mad.

His lifestyle

He came up with 13 virtues and very intentionally lived his life in accordance to them. He was super pragmatic in his thinking, a very social person, and beloved by many many friends all over the world.

The ways in which he tackled problems was extremely logical and allowed him to do so much for science, philosophy and politics.

Imbedded in American life

All of those things are interesting and his lifestyle is worth learning from.

Possibly more, though, is that a lot of his ideas and thoughts are now embedded in American life. He cared deeply about the middle class and avoiding hierarchies. Due to the role that he played in all of the important founding documents of our country, his ideas are actually instilled in daily life.

I felt like reading this book connected dots for me about the structure of our country.

Learning about the foundation paints a beautiful picture of the current state

I didn’t realize before reading this book, but learning about how a country was founded and formed can paint a really strong picture about its current state.

It gives you the foundation a country and its society was built upon, which connects quite well to where the country is today.

Reading this book helped me see that in America, and it made me want to learn a bit more about our founding fathers and the history around that time (as well as the Civil and World Wars and the Cold War).

Our democratic ways and respect of the middle class enables many people (although definitely not everyone) to achieve success and their own dreams.

It was also useful to gain that understanding as I am in South America and can now look at the people and culture here through a different light.

Culture here is different and it is in large part to the way that these countries were founded, which I’m excited to learn more about.

Overall

Was a long book, but thoroughly enjoyed it, and I now look up to Ben Franklin for his pragmatic thinking, curiosity and willingness to give and explore.

Thoughts on this review/the book in general? Comment or send me a note :)

Full reading list here