Awards

• Commended for Audies (Nonfiction-Unabridged) 2005

Overview

From the most respected chronicler of the early days of the Republic-and winner of both the Pulitzer and Bancroft prizes-comes a landmark work that rescues Benjamin Franklin from a mythology that has blinded generations of Americans to the man he really was and makes sense of aspects of his life and career that would have otherwise remained mysterious. In place of the genial polymath, self-improver, and quintessential American, Gordon S. Wood reveals a figure much more ambiguous and complex-and much more interesting. Charting the passage of Franklin's life and reputation from relative popular indifference (his death, while the occasion for mass mourning in France, was widely ignored in America) to posthumous glory, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin sheds invaluable light on the emergence of our country's idea of itself.

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9781565118867

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Reviews

. . . a fascinating portrait of Franklin, not only as a forefather but as a man.

. . . a fascinating portrait of Franklin, not only as a forefather but as a man.--

". . . a fascinating portrait of Franklin, not only as a forefather but as a man. "" ""Gordon Wood does a brilliant job of showing how Franklin carefully constructed his own image and how Americans, especially in the early 19th century, began recreating that image and making him a folk hero....Professor Wood's feel for the social dynamics of the colonial era is unsurpassed, and it is reflected in this insightful masterpiece of analysis."""

. . . a fascinating portrait of Franklin, not only as a forefather but as a man. Gordon Wood does a brilliant job of showing how Franklin carefully constructed his own image and how Americans, especially in the early 19th century, began recreating that image and making him a folk hero....Professor Wood's feel for the social dynamics of the colonial era is unsurpassed, and it is reflected in this insightful masterpiece of analysis.

Author Information

Gordon S. Wood is Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History at Brown University. His books include the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Radicalism of the American Revolution, the Bancroft Prize-winning The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787, and The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin. Coming soon...

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