Skip to main content

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson: book review



Benjamin Franklin (2004) is a delightful, absorbing read about a man with a wealth of knowledge and a variety of interests: rather like an eighteenth century Leonardo da Vinci. Benjamin Franklin was America’s best scientist, inventor, diplomat, writer, business strategist and political thinker. With a lifelong intellectual curiosity, he proved that lightening was electricity by flying a kite in a storm. He invented bifocal glasses and clean-burning stoves. He espoused theories on the common cold and the gulf stream. He helped with America’s treaty of alliance with France and the peace treaty with England.



Benjamin Franklin, the Founding Father of America, the man who helped shape the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution, was the son of an Englishman. Franklin, born in 1706 in Boston, began his career as a printer’s apprentice at seventeen and in his early twenties opened his own printery and distribution company. From this base, and with a gregarious outlook, he launched a number of community organizations, such as the fire brigade, a lending library and other “do-good” associations. At the age of 42, he sold his successful business to “read, study, make experiments, and converse at large with such ingenious and worthy men as are pleased to honor me with their friendship”, though in reality he focused his ambition on science, politics, diplomacy and inventions.
He made many long trips to England and on his return launched a plan for America to become independent of Britain. And hence he served and steered his country towards the revolution. In his 70s he visited France to enlist their aid in his fight for independence. Through his diplomat ways, his flirtations with the ladies of Paris, and France’s 440-year tradition of regular wars with England, the time was ripe for success. The French loved him: “he knew how to be impolite without being rude”; and he loved the French: “I found them a most amiable nation to live with. The Spaniards are by common opinion supposed to be cruel, the English proud, the Scotch insolent, the Dutch avaricious, etc., but I think the French have no national vice ascribed to them. They have some frivolities, but they are harmless”; and added “this is the civilest nation upon earth”.

Franklin observed that America’s strength in world affairs “would come from a unique mix that included idealism as well as realism … and its virtuous nature”, and he worked towards his goal. One of Franklin’s French friends said, “he would eat, sleep, work whenever he saw fit, according to his needs, so that there never was a more leisurely man, though he certainly handled a tremendous amount of business.” Even as he indulged in the frivolities of pre-revolutionary Paris, he focused much of his writing on egalitarian, anti-elitist ideas and middle-class virtues.

Isaacson not only presents Franklin’s virtues, but also his indiscretions and complexities: his illegitimate son; his “lack of soulful commitment and passion” towards relationships; his conniving ways; and his oft-times self-promotion and publicity. However, Isaacson boasts that Franklin’s greatest strength was his willingness to compromise: “compromisers may not make great heroes, but they do make democracies … his focus tended to be on how ordinary issues affect everyday lives, and on how ordinary people could build a better society”. He was also “the most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become”.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing