Books on Benjamin Franklin

A giant of history, Benjamin Franklin was everything from a Founding Father to a politician, scientist, philosopher inventor and more.

Given the title “The First American” he not only helped draft and then sign the Declaration of Independence, he became America’s first Postmaster General and served as the first United States ambassador to France. Through all of this he worked tirelessly to unite the country.

He invented the lighting rod, bifocals and the Franklin stove. He founded a library, Philadelphia’s first fire department and the University of Pennsylvania. He was also a newspaper publisher.

But perhaps most importantly, he played a pivotal role in helping define America’s values of hard work, frugality, community, tolerance and independence.

Books on Benjamin Franklin

Franklin: The Essential Founding Father

Perhaps the most all-encompassing biography of Benjamin Franklin ever written. Historian James Srodes relies on conventional sources as well as the previously ignored Franklin papers to provide the full story of Franklin the man, the journalist, the politician, scientist and adventurer.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Among his many other inventions, it can be argued that Benjamin Franklin invented the autobiography.

If not the first to document the story of his own life, Franklin’s work was so pivotal (and his story so amazing) that he most certainly popularizes the format.

An incredible insight into the man, his ideals and his role in the creation of America, it’s also, quite simply, just an amazing book that should be read by one and all

The Compleated Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

While its hard to out-do Benjamin Franklin’s own autobiography, historian Mark Skousen has taken on the challenge of doing just that in a truly unique way.

If there’s one flaw in Franklin’s own work is that it was written 30 years before his death and, as a result, is missing many of the most important events of his life.

Skousen has assembled a more complete look at Franklin’s life and has done so by relying exclusively on his own words, drawn from diaries, letters and more. As a result, this new autobiography provides a personal and first-person narrative of every major event in Franklin’s life, from his missions to England, his role as Ambassador to France and even his final years.

You’ll learn his private views on everyone from Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, what troubled him about the French Revolution, why he wanted to abolish slavery, the importance of marriage, and even why be believed America’s symbol shouldn’t be a bald eagle but a turkey.