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No one can rejoice more sincerely than I do on the Reduction of Canada; and this, not merely as I am a Colonist, but as I am a Briton. I have long been of Opinion, that the Foundations of the future Grandeur and Stability of the British Empire, lie in America; and tho', like other Foundations, they are low and little seen, they are nevertheless, broad and Strong enough to support the greatest Political Structure Human Wisdom ever yet erected. I am therefore by no means for restoring Canada. If we keep it, all the Country from St. Laurence to Missisipi, will in another Century be fill'd with British People; Britain itself will become vastly more populous by the immense Increase of its Commerce; the Atlantic Sea will be cover'd with your Trading Ships; and your naval Power thence continually increasing, will extend your Influence round the whole Globe, and awe the World! If the French remain in Canada, they will continually harass our Colonies by the Indians, impede if not prevent their Growth; your Progress to Greatness will at best be slow, and give room for many Accidents that may for ever prevent it. But I refrain, for I see you begin to think my Notions extravagant, and look upon them as the Ravings of a mad Prophet.
-Benjamin Franklin, letter to Lord Kames (January 3, 1760)

It seems entirely predictable that the adult hero of the new PBS kids show, Liberty's Kids, set during the American Revolution, is Benjamin Franklin.  Portly, bald, bespectacled, so easy to imagine smudged with printer's ink, or flying his kite in a storm--Franklin seems the most accessible of the Founders.  In our imaginations, hasn't the rough edges of a John Adams, the tragic mien of an Alexander Hamilton, the slavery defending taint of a Thomas Jefferson, or the forbidding reserve of a George Washington.  Now some of this, of course, is simply the product of how he's been portrayed in popular history--he did, after all, own slaves himself; had at least friendly relationships with many women while an ocean away from his wife; and lived by the adage "let all men know thee, but no man know thee thoroughly"--but he was also, at least as portrayed here, an uncommonly decent man, accessible to all, even though the most famous man of his day, and apparently devoid of a dark side.  In fact, considering the Franklin who emerges from this almost hagiographic account, it's easy to see why he's remained sort of the mascot of the Revolution.

Renowned historian Edmund S. Morgan is 86 now and has more than his share of laurels that he could rest upon.  Here, from his review of this book, is historian Gordon S. Wood on Edmund Morgan's signal contribution to the study of history:

    For over a half-century prior to the publication of the Morgans' The Stamp Act Crisis, scholars such as Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. had described
    the Revolution as the product of underlying forces, mostly economic in nature.  These Progressive scholars dismissed the revolutionaries'
    own explanation of their motives--that they were revolting on behalf of their rights against parliamentary power--as bombastic and inconsistent
    propaganda, not to be taken seriously by any hard-headed realist.  But writing in the face of decades of economic determinist scholarship,
    the Morgans did take seriously what the American colonists had to say about Parliamentary power and their rights.  And they thus set in
    motion a generation of historical scholarship that began by revealing the richness of the ideas of the revolutionaries and ended by turning the
    American Revolution into one of the great intellectual achievements of modern times.

For anyone who's majored in history or has a layman's interest, or both, it is impossible to adequately express our debt to Mr. Morgan.  As Mr. Wood says, he played a central role in rescuing us from the economic determinism of the Marxists and helped to restore the centrality of ideas to the study of history.  Had he done nothing else but this, Mr. Morgan would be worthy of reverence.  But in addition he's written any number of excellent texts and now, at an age when few would still be writing worthwhile books, Mr. Morgan offers this delightful biographical essay, inspired by and largely derived from the work he's overseeing as chairman of the Administrative Board of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin, a project centered at Yale University, where he is Sterling Professor of History Emeritus.

Mr. Morgan briefly sketches out Franklin's early life, his work as a printer and publisher, his involvement in an incredible array of civic improvements in Philadelphia, and the experiments with electricity that won him his world-wide fame.  But then the bulk of the shortish book is taken up by Franklin's time in Europe, first in England, where in addition to trying to make Pennsylvania a royal colony, he waged a virtually solo campaign to preserve Anglo-American ties. Then, after a hiatus in America, one that converted him to a full bore American patriot and saw him collaborate on the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, it's back overseas, this time to France, where he played the vital role in keeping French loans coming and getting the French to send military assistance, then stayed on to negotiate the 1782 peace between America and Britain.  In his final years, back in America, Franklin attended the Constitutional Convention, though Mr. Morgan barely mentions it, and he wrote on topics both political and scientific.

The book is entirely beguiling and I'd encourage everyone to read it.  The attention that Mr. Morgan pays to people's own ideas provides one of the real treats of the book, his nuanced discussion of Franklin's personal religious views.  As Mr. Morgan portrays it, Franklin's brand of Christianity may have been peculiar--he seems not to have believed that the Bible was revealed nor that Christ was the son of God--but it was enduring and was central to his character, for what Franklin believed in was Christian morality and he believed "that tho' certain Actions might not be bad because they were forbidden by [the Bible], or good because it commanded them, yet probably those Actions might be forbidden because they were bad for us, or commanded because they were beneficial to us."  While Franklin's personal behavior, particularly with regard to women, may not have been as chaste as Mr. Morgan would (unnecessarily) have us believe, he seems to have lived an otherwise upright life and to have never lost sight of the need for society to be structured around such religious morality.  Though seldom discussed, the Founders, for all the variety of their religious views and practices, were largely unified in their belief in the necessity for religion to provide America's moral order.

One wonders though if Mr. Morgan doesn't make something of a misstep in his treatment of another big idea: Franklin's long attachment to the "long-term goal of an Anglo-American empire of equals".  Mr. Morgan demonstrates how during the two long stretches that Franklin spent in England prior to the Revolution--1757-62 and 1764-75--he worked very hard to preserve or restore friendly relations between the colonies and the British.  But for Franklin, even then, it had to be a relationship between equals.  He considered himself the equal of any Englishman, and wanted only that he and his fellow colonists be treated as such.  In Mr. Morgan's view, this led Franklin to stay too long on the side of accommodation, when other Americans had already moved over fully to the side of Independence.  On returning home, Franklin indeed realized that the situation on the ground was too far gone for his hopes to  prevail and he too became an ardent advocate of independence.  Mr. Morgan treats as error Franklin's failure to come to this view sooner, and then raises no questions when Franklin, during his time in France (1776-83), sought to forge tight ties to the French.  In fact, the harshest criticism in the book is reserved for John Adams, who was far less willing to bind America's fortunes to the French.

Mr. Morgan's attitude here is perfectly understandable from a patriot's retrospective view.  Because of the way events played out,  it's easy to say that Franklin should have seen the demand for independence coming and been on board earlier and obviously the entanglement with France did the Revolution much good and no harm.  However, if one extends the historical perspective and looks at things with a less parochial eye, it's possible to make the argument that Franklin was right in the beginning and wrong to abandon his dream.

Even assuming that war between America and England was necessary--to prove that the former was in fact the equal of the latter--wiser heads might have sought to preserve a formal relationship between the old and the new nation after the war.  Franklin, even at that early date, understood that America was destined to be the "greater" nation--mostly for reasons of demographics and his prescience about America's population growth .  He envisioned a future where the English Empire would endure, but its focus of power would gradually shift across the Atlantic.  In effect, that is what happened over the ensuing centuries.  However, because there was no official, institutional structure that united the two, each was at times left to shift for itself when the other could have helped.  There's little real value in speculating about alternate histories, but it's irresistible to imagine how much differently America might have handled the slavery question had there been some institutional outlet for British pressure to oppose it and had the South not held out hope that Britain might take their side in the Civil War.  Equally intriguing is the thought of whether WWI and, even more so, WWII would have seemed so attractive to the Germans had they known that war with England necessarily implicated war with America.

As regards Franklin's dalliance with France, perhaps he just correctly intuited that America would have little to fear from the French, but as the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era would soon show, there was little to recommend a long term Franco-American relationship.  America is a product of the English belief in freedom, with which French demands for equality are ultimately incompatible.  That America was able to avoid the malefic influence of France can not excuse entirely the danger Franklin may have taken in courting it, and the adulation with which he was received in France may well have blinded him to the danger.

At any rate, while Mr. Morgan treats the idea of permanent British/American unity as a weakness on Franklin's part, maybe even little more than a fetish, it seems pretty attractive from the distance of two centuries, a time during which the "special relationship" has proven so important to the cause of freedom in the world.

This criticism is minor though in comparison to what is a very readable and immensely enjoyable book.  Once again we are indebted to Mr. Morgan.  It's a debt that I, for one, have been happy to incur.

(Reviewed:)

Grade: (A)


Websites:

See also:

Edmund Morgan (2 books reviewed)
Biography
Edmund Morgan Links:

    -WIKIPEDIA: Edmund S. Morgan
    -
   
-ESSAY: Poor Richard's New Year: Is it peculiarly American to want to make yourself a better person? (Edmund S. Morgan, 12/31/02, NY Times)
    -PROFILE: The Historian's Historian (EDWARD NAWOTKA, 12/9/2002, Publishers Weekly)     -REVIEW ESSAY: Secrets of Benjamin Franklin (Edmund S. Morgan, January 31, 1991, The New York Review of Books)
    -LECTURE: An Address to the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, on the Occasion of Its Centennial (Edmund S. Morgan, Sep 1993, The New England Quarterly)
    -ESSAY: The Puritan Ethic and the American Revolution (Edmund S. Morgan, Jan 1967, William and Mary Quarterly)
    -ESSAY: The Postponement of the Stamp Act (Edmund S. Morgan, July 1950, William and Mary Quarterly)
    -ESSAY: The Labor Problem at Jamestown, 1607-18 (Edmund S. Morgan, June 1971, The American Historical Review)
    -ESSAY: Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox (Edmund S. Morgan, The Journal of American History)
    -ESSAY: The First American Boom: Virginia 1618 to 1630 (Edmund S. Morgan, April 1971, William and Mary Quarterly)
    -ESSAY: The American Revolution: Revisions in Need of Revising (Edmund S. Morgan, Jan 1957, William and Mary Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of The Coming of the Revolution, 1763-1775 by Lawrence Henry Gipson (Edmund S. Morgan, The American Historical Review)
   -REVIEW: of Winthrop's Boston: Portrait of a Puritan Town, 1630-1649 by Darrett B. Rutman (Edmund S. Morgan, The American Historical Review)
    -REVIEW: of The Legend of the Founding Fathers by Wesley Frank Craven (Edmund S. Morgan, The Journal of Southern History)
    -REVIEW: of The Eighteenth-Century Commonwealthman by Caroline Robbins (Edmund S. Morgan, The Journal of Modern History)
    -REVIEW: of A Yankee's Odyssey: The Life of Joel Barlow by James Woodress (Edmund S. Morgan, The American Historical Review)
    -REVIEW: of Messrs. William Pepperrell: Merchants at Piscataqua by Byron Fairchild (Edmund S. Morgan, The American Historical Review)
    -REVIEW: of Seedtime of the Republic: The Origin of the American Tradition of Political Liberty by Clinton Rossiter (Edmund S. Morgan, The Journal of Southern History)
    -REVIEW ESSAY: Miller's Williams: a review of The Complete Writings of Roger Williams (Edmund S. Morgan, The New England Quarterly)
    -REVIEW ESSAY: John Adams and the Puritan Tradition: a review of Diary and Autobiography of John Adams (Edmund S. Morgan, Dec 1961, The New England Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of The Stamp Act Congress: With an Exact Copy of the Complete Journal by C. A. Weslager (Edmund S. Morgan, The Journal of American History)
    -REVIEW: of Adams Family Correspondence edited by L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender (Edmund S. Morgan, The American Historical Review)
    -REVIEW: of The Social Structure of Revolutionary America by Jackson Turner Main (Edmund S. Morgan, The Journal of Southern History)
    -REVIEW: of Meeting Hill 1630-1783 by Ola Elizabeth Winslow (Edmund S. Morgan, William and Mary Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of Thomas Pownall, British Defender of American Liberty; A Study of Anglo-American Relations in the Eighteenth Century by John A. Schutz (Edmund S. Morgan, The Mississippi Valley Historical Review)
    -REVIEW: of The Declaration of Independence and What it Means Today by Edward Dumbauld (Edmund S. Morgan, The American Historical Review)
    -REVIEW: of The New Nation: A History of the United States During the Confederation, 1781-1789 by Merrill Jensen;  The Letters of Benjamin Franklin and Jane Mecom edited by Carl Van Doren; and Jane Mecom: The Favorite Sister of Benjamin Franklin by Carl Van Doren (Edmund S. Morgan, William E. Lingelbach, The American Historical Review)
    -REVIEW: of Benjamin Franklin's Letters to the Press, 1758-1775 by Verner W. Crane (Edmund S. Morgan, The American Historical Review)
    -REVIEW: of The Atlantic Civilization: Eighteenth-Century Origins by Michael Kraus (Edmund S. Morgan, The Mississippi Valley Historical Review)
    -REVIEW: of The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modern Inquiry into the Salem Witch Trials by Marion L. Starkey (Edmund S. Morgan, The American Historical Review)
    -INTERVIEW: Fifty Years of American History: An Interview with Edmund S. Morgan (David T. Courtwright, April 1987, William and Mary Quarterly)
    -Colonial America BookNotes: Edmund Sears Morgan (1916- )
    -The Yale University Bookstore - Edmund S. Morgan
    -BOOK PAGE: Benjamin Franklin (Yale University Press)
    -PROFILE: Ben Franklin  (HILLEL ITALIE, 7/29/02, Associated Press)
    -PROFILE: Searching for Ben (CBS News, 11/18/02)
    -AWARD: Edmund S. Morgan, The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America (Bancroft Prize 1989)
    -ARTICLE: National Humanities Medal awarded to historian Morgan (Susan Gonzalez, January 12, 2001, Yale Bulletin and Calendar)
    -ESSAY: Colonial Jamestown: Our True Beginnings According to Edmund S. Morgan (Vicky Smith)
    -Colonial America BookNotes: Edmund Sears Morgan The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop
    -Study Questions for Edmund Morgan's Puritan Dilemma (Sally Hadden)
    -ESSAY: Preparation and Confession: Reconsidering Edmund S. Morgan's Visible Saints (in Reconsiderations) (Michael G. Ditmore, june 1994, The New England Quarterly)
    -ARCHIVES: The New York Review of Books: Edmund S. Morgan
    -ARCHIVES: "edmund s. morgan" (Find Articles)
    -REVIEW: of Benjamin Franklin by Edmund S. Morgan (Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post)
    -REVIEW: of Benjamin Franklin by Edmund S. Morgan (Susan Dunn, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: of Benjamin Franklin by Edmund S. Morgan (Gordon S. Wood, NY Review of Books)
    -REVIEW: of Benjamin Franklin by Edmund S. Morgan (Ted Widmer, NY Observer)
    -REVIEW: of Benjamin Franklin (Marc Arkin, New Criterion)
   -REVIEW: of Benjamin Franklin (Max Hall, Boston Globe)
    -REVIEW: of Benjamin Franklin (LEE CEARNAL, Houston Chronicle)
    -REVIEW: of Benjamin Franklin (David L. Beck, San Jose Mercury News)
    -REVIEW: of The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop (Emil Oberholzer, Jr., The Mississippi Valley Historical Review)
    -REVIEW: of The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop (Richard S. Dunn, William and Mary Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop (J. H. Hexter, The New England Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop (Everett H. Emerson, American Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of Prologue to Revolution: Sources and Documents on the Stamp Act Crisis, 1764-1766 by Edmund S. Morgan (Malcolm Freiberg, The New England Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of Prologue to Revolution: Sources and Documents on the Stamp Act Crisis, 1764-1766 (John A. Schutz, William and Mary Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of The Stamp Act Crisis; Prologue to Revolution (John R. Alden, The Mississippi Valley Historical Review)
    -REVIEW: of The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution (Robert H. Woody, The Journal of Southern History)
    -REVIEW: of The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution (O. M. Dickerson, The American Historical Review)
    -REVIEW: of The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution (Charles R. Ritcheson, William and Mary Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of The Stamp Act Crisis (S. E. Morison, The New England Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of Virginians at Home: Family Life in the Eighteenth Century by Edmund S. Morgan (Elizabeth Bancroft Schlesinger, William and Mary Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of Virginians at Home: Family Life in the Eighteenth Century (Louis B. Wright, The Journal of Southern History)
    -REVIEW: of The Birth of the Republic: 1763-89 by Edmund S. Morgan (Max Savelle, William and Mary Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of The Birth of the Republic, 1763-89 (Robert E. Moody, The New England Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of The Birth of The Republic, 1763-89 (John R. Alden, The American Historical Review)
    -REVIEW: of  The Birth of the Republic, 1763-89 (Aubrey C. Land, The Mississippi Valley Historical Review)
    -REVIEW: of Roger Williams: The Church and the State by Edmund S. Morgan (Sidney V. James, William and Mary Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of Roger Williams: The Church and the State (Emery Battis, The Journal of American History)
    -REVIEW: of Roger Williams: The Church and the State (Robert Ernst, American Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of Roger Williams: The Church and the State (Samuel Hugh Brockunier, The American Historical Review)
    -REVIEW: of Roger Williams: The Church and the State (Darrett B. Rutman, The New England Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of The Founding of Massachusetts: Historians and the Sources by Edmund S. Morgan (Aubrey C. Land, The Journal of Modern History)
    -REVIEW: of The Founding of Massachusetts: Historians and the Sources (Bruce T. McCully, The New England Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of The Founding of Massachusetts: Historians and the Sources (Richard C. Simmons, William and Mary Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of The Gentle Puritan: A Life of Ezra Stiles, 1727-1795 by Edmund S. Morgan (Whitfield J. Bell, Jr., William and Mary Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of The Gentle Puritan: A Life of Ezra Stiles, 1727-1795 (Merle Curti, The Journal of Modern History)
    -REVIEW: of The Gentle Puritan: A Life of Ezra Stiles, 1727-1795 (James Edward Scanlon, History of Education Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia by Edmund S. Morgan (Oscar Handlin, The American Historical Review)
    -REVIEW: of American Slavery--American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (Richard S. Dunn, William and Mary Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia  (Russell R. Menard, The Journal of American History)
    -REVIEW: of American Slavery--American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (Michael G. Kammen, The Journal of Southern History)
    -REVIEW: of American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (J. R. Pole, The Historical Journal)
    -REVIEW: of American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (Jack P. Greene, Political Science Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of American Slavery--American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (Rhys Isaac, Reviews in American History)
    -REVIEW: of American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia. By Edmund S. Morgan (Warren M. Billings, Virginia Historical Society)
    -REVIEW: of Visible Saints: The History of a Puritan Idea by Edmund S. Morgan (Louis L. Tucker, The American Historical Review)
    -REVIEW: of Visible Saints; The History of a Puritan Idea by Edmund S. Morgan (Norman Pettit, The New England Quarterly)
  &nbs�p; -REVIEW: of Visible Saints: The History of a Puritan Idea (L. J. Trinterud, The Mississippi Valley Historical Review)
The Colonial Scene (1602-1800): A Catalogue of Books Exhibited at the John Carter Brown Library
    -REVIEW: of The Challenge of the American Revolution by Edmund S. Morgan (David L. Ammerman, The New England Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of The Meaning of Independence: John Adams, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson by Edmund S. Morgan (Carlton Jackson, The Journal of Southern History)
    -REVIEW: of The Meaning of Independence (Gregg L. Lint, The New England Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of The Meaning of Independence: John Adams, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson (Jack P. Greene, The Journal of American History)
    -REVIEW: of The Meaning of Independence: John Adams, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson (Clarence L. Ver Steeg, The American Historical Review)
    -REVIEW: of Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America by Edmund S. Morgan (Edward Countryman, The Journal of Southern History)
    -REVIEW: of Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America (Donald S. Lutz, William and Mary Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America (Colin Brooks, The American Historical Review)
    -REVIEW: of Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America (Glenn W. LaFantasie, The New England Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America (Sydney V. James, Reviews in American History)
    -REVIEW: of Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America (Joyce Appleby, The Journal of American History)

Book-related and General Links:

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN:
    -ETEXT: The Autobiography
    -ETEXTS: Benjamin Franklin  Poor Richard's Almanac
    -ETEXTS: The Writings of Benjamin Franklin (History Carper)
    -Benjamin Franklin books from Yale University Press
    -Benjamin Franklin: an extraordinary life, an electric mind (PBS)
    -The Electric Franklin
    -Benjamin Franklin (AmericaWriters.org)
    -ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA: "benjamin franklin"
    -The Friends of Franklin, Inc.
    -Benjamin Franklin: A Documentary History (Leo Lemay)
    -Benjamin Franklin | American Statesman and Inventor (Lucid Cafe)
    -Gettysburg College Special Collections : Poor Richard's Almanac
    -INTERVIEW : Was Benjamin Franklin the First American? : H. W. Brands (PBS Think Tank)
    -INTERVIEW : The Full Franklin : H.W. Brands' New Biography Reveals the Entire Story of Benjamin Franklin (CLAY SMITH,  December 1, 2000, Austin Chronicle)
    -EXCERPT: from Studies in Classic American Literature by D.H. Lawrence: Chapter 2 Benjamin Franklin
    -PODCAST:
   
-
   
-ESSAY: Benjamin Franklin: the Founding Father who saved America: As well as being a printer, publisher, philosopher, inventor and Founding Father of America, Benjamin Franklin also found time to become a French fashion icon – and almost became a swimming teacher (Jonny Wilkes, April 25, 2024, History Extra)
    -
   
-ESSAY: Franklin's Arrival In Philadelphia: When did Ben arrive here? Now we know. (Edgar Williams, August 27, 1980, Philadelphia Inquirer)
    -ESSAY: Poor Richard's Flattery: This being Bastille Day, it's a good time to take a lesson from Benjamin Franklin on how to woo France. (WALTER ISAACSON, 7/14/03, NY Times)
    -ESSAY: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: CHAMPION OF GENERIC RELIGION. (David T. Morgan, Summer 2000, Historian)
    -ESSAY: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AN AMERICAN IN LONDON: Esmonds Wright recalls the life of the American philosophers, scientist and man of letters in his years in a street near Charing Cross. (Esmond Wright, March, 2000, History Today)
    -ESSAY: Franklin, "The Millennium Man": Franklin -- One in a 1000 Years, says The Independent (Claude-Anne Lopez, New England Courant)
    -ESSAY: An Apotheosis of Franklin: The Story of a Painting by N.C. Wyeth
    -ESSAY: Benjamin Franklin: Founding Father of American Management. (Blaine Mccormick, January 2001, Business Horizons)
    -ARCHIVES: "benjamin franklin" (Find Articles)
    -REVIEW : of The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin  Franklin by H. W. Brands (Michiko Kakutani, NY Times)
    -REVIEW : of The First American (Max Hall, Boston Globe)
    -REVIEW: of Benjamin Franklin and His Gods. By Kerry S. Walters (David T. Morgan, Historian)
    -REVIEW: of The Radical Enlightenments of Benjamin Franklin. By Douglas Anderson. (Benjamin H. Newcomb, Historian)
    -REVIEW ESSAY: Benjamin Franklin, Politician: The Mask and the Man (Stuart Andrews, May 1997, History Today)
    -ESSAY: Benjamin Franklin: “First philosopher” of America (Walter Donway, January 17, 2024, Online Library of Liberty)
    -
   
-REVIEW ESSAY: Franklin, Washington, Lincoln (Horace Elisha Scudder, November 1889, Atlantic Monthly)
    -REVIEW ESSAY: AMERICAN ELECTRIC: Did Franklin fly that kite? (ADAM GOPNIK, 2003-06-30, New Yorker)
   
-REVIEW: of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson (Joseph Ellis, NY Times Book Review)
    -ESSAY: Benjamin Franklin’s Legacy: Unveiling His Most Famous Invention (Foreign Policy, NOVEMBER 26, 2023)