Not Your Usual Founding Father: Selected Readings from Benjamin FranklinYale University Press, 01.01.2006 - 303 Seiten This engaging book reveals Benjamin Franklin’s human side—his tastes and habits, his enthusiasms, and his devotion to democracy and the people of the United States. Three hundred years after his birth, we may remember Franklin’s famous Autobiography, or his status as framer of the Declaration of Independence and the peace with Great Britain, or his experiments in electricity, or perhaps his sage advice on diligence and thrift. But historian Edmund S. Morgan invites us to meet the man himself, a sociable, good-natured, and extraordinary human being with boundless curiosity about the natural world and a vision of what America could be. Drawing on lifelong research in the vast Franklin archives, Morgan assembles both famous and lesser-known writings that offer insights into this founding father’s thinking. The book is organized around four major themes, each with an introduction. The first section includes journal excerpts and letters revealing Franklin’s personal tastes and habits. The second is devoted to Franklin’s inexhaustible intellectual energy and his scientific discoveries. The third and fourth chronicle his devotion to serving the people who became the United States both before and after the Revolution and to advancing his democratic vision of their future. Franklin’s humanity and genius have never seemed more real than in the pages of this appealing anthology. |
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Seite 16
... consider how they live, confined and stifled up with such a lousy stinking rabble in this sultry latitude. . . . Wednesday, September 28 We had very variable winds and weather last night, accompanied with abundance of rain; and now the ...
... consider how they live, confined and stifled up with such a lousy stinking rabble in this sultry latitude. . . . Wednesday, September 28 We had very variable winds and weather last night, accompanied with abundance of rain; and now the ...
Seite 22
... consider'd as an Attempt to establish something like an hereditary Rank or Nobility . I hold with you that it was wrong ; may I add that all descending Honours are wrong & absurd ; that the Honour of virtuous Actions appertains only to ...
... consider'd as an Attempt to establish something like an hereditary Rank or Nobility . I hold with you that it was wrong ; may I add that all descending Honours are wrong & absurd ; that the Honour of virtuous Actions appertains only to ...
Seite 37
... consider that it has cost me at least 50 Guineas to get into the Situation that enables me to write it . Besides , I might , if I had staid at home , have won perhaps two shillings of you at Cribbidge . By the Way , now I mention Cards ...
... consider that it has cost me at least 50 Guineas to get into the Situation that enables me to write it . Besides , I might , if I had staid at home , have won perhaps two shillings of you at Cribbidge . By the Way , now I mention Cards ...
Seite 38
... consider for ' em what sort of Husbands would be fittest for every one of them . We began with Geor- giana . She thought a Country Gentleman , that lov'd Travelling and would take her with him , that lov'd Books and would hear her read ...
... consider for ' em what sort of Husbands would be fittest for every one of them . We began with Geor- giana . She thought a Country Gentleman , that lov'd Travelling and would take her with him , that lov'd Books and would hear her read ...
Seite 40
... Consider- ation . I doubt , says she , we have not done right for Betsey . I don't think a Merchant will do for her . She is much inclin'd to be a fine Gentlewoman ; and is indeed already more of the fine Gentlewoman , I think , than ...
... Consider- ation . I doubt , says she , we have not done right for Betsey . I don't think a Merchant will do for her . She is much inclin'd to be a fine Gentlewoman ; and is indeed already more of the fine Gentlewoman , I think , than ...
Inhalt
1 | |
Part II Nature observed | 67 |
Part III A continental vision | 141 |
Part IV War peace and humanity | 219 |
Chronology | 289 |
Credits | 291 |
Index | 297 |
Andere Ausgaben - Alle anzeigen
Not Your Usual Founding Father: Selected Readings from Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - 2007 |
Not Your Usual Founding Father: Selected Readings from Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - 2006 |
Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
Acts of Parliament Adams Advantage Albany Congress America Articles of Confederation Assembly become Benjamin Franklin Boat Body Britain British Business called Children chimney Clouds cold Collinson Colonies Commerce common conductors Congress continued Country dear Debt Earth electric Fluid Emma Thompson empire England English Europe excerpted Expence Experiment Family Fire France French Friend give Globe Government Grand Council Honour House human increase Indians Inhabitants Island Jane Mecom Jonathan Shipley Julien-David Le Roy kind King Labour Land Laws letter lightning live London Lord Madame Helvétius Manufactures means Merchants Money Nation natural never Number Observations occasion Opinion Parliament Peace Pennsylvania perhaps Persons Peter Collinson Philadelphia Power present Property proposed Quantity Ships slaves Society soon Stamp Act Subsistence Sugar Taxes thing thought thro tion Trade treaty Union wanted Water wind