Benjamin Franklin and the American Revolution
- ISBN-10
- 0803269528
- ISBN-13
- 9780803269521
- Category
- History
- Pages
- 184
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2010-12-01
- Publisher
- U of Nebraska Press
- Author
- Jonathan R. Dull
Description
The inventor, the ladies’ man, the affable diplomat, and the purveyor of pithy homespun wisdom: we all know the charming, resourceful Benjamin Franklin. What is less appreciated is the importance of Franklin’s part in the American Revolution: except for Washington he was its most irreplaceable leader. Although aged and in ill health, Franklin served the cause with unsurpassed zeal and dedication. Jonathan R. Dull, whose decades of work on The Papers of Benjamin Franklin have given him rare insight into his subject, explains Franklin’s role in the Revolution, what prepared him for that role, and what motivated him. The Franklin presented here, a man immersed in the violence, danger, and suffering of the Revolution, is a tougher person than the Franklin of legend. Dull’s portrait captures Franklin’s confidence and self-righteousness about himself and the American cause. It shows his fanatical zeal, his hatred of King George III and George’s American supporters (particularly Franklin’s own son), and his disdain for hardship and danger. It also shows a side of Franklin that he tried to hide: his vanity, pride, and ambition. Though not as lovable and avuncular as the person of legend, this Franklin is more interesting, more complex, and in many ways more impressive.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Benjamin Franklin: Writer, Inventor, and Diplomat
By Michael HesledenFranklin was also one of the framers of the Declaration of Independence, and this book will help students understand what the document has meant to our country’s history.
-
20 Fun Facts About Benjamin Franklin
By Theresa MorlockThis book is full of fun facts and tantalizing trivia about his inventions, his ideas, and how he became one of the most influential Founding Fathers involved in the birth of America.
-
Benjamin Franklin in London: The British Life of America's Founding Father
By George GoodwinAn account of Franklin's British years.
-
Runaway America: Benjamin Franklin, Slavery, and the American Revolution
By David WaldstreicherTo this description, the talented young historian David Waldstreicher shows we must add runaway, slave master, and empire builder. But Runaway America does much more than revise our image of a beloved founding father.
-
Biographies of the American Revolution: Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Paul Jones, and More
By Britannica Educational PublishingRejecting British authority and profoundly committed to the principles of liberty and justice as well as the land they called home, American colonists from all walks of life answered the resounding cry for independence and gave voice to the ...
-
Religion and the American Revolution: An Imperial History
By Katherine CartéConvening just weeks after the battles at Lexington and Concord, Congress quickly attended to its own schedule for prayer and moved for a resolution for a national fast day. The year before, the first ...
-
Our First Civil War: Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution
By H. W. BrandsBrands tells the story of the American Revolution as it really unfolded—as a civil war between colonial patriots and those loyal to the British Crown and Parliament.
-
The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin
By Gordon S. WoodOffers a portrait of the complex, often contradictory figure of Benjamin Franklin, a man who was at once the quintessential American and a cosmopolitan lover of Europe, and a one-time loyalist turned revolutionary.
-
Young Benjamin Franklin: The Birth of Ingenuity
By Nick Bunker1, pp. 141–49, 164–65, and 759–61; and John Mottley, A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster (London, 1733–35), Book , p. 180, Book III, pp. 619–29 and 748–53. Appearance of the houses: Washington Irving, "Little Britain" in ...
-
British Supporters of the American Revolution, 1775-1783: The Role of the 'middling-level' Activists
By Sheldon Samuel CohenIn particular, studies of pro-American Britons have exemplified this fact by concentrating on only a small upper-class minority. In contrast, this work focuses on five unrenowned men of Britain's `middling orders'.