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Volume LX Number 3 William and Mary Quarterly Reviews of Books

Short summary:
During Benjamin Franklins lifetime his international reputation rested .... much of the biography. This according to Morgan is how Franklin would have ...

Long summary:
Volume LX Number 3 William and Mary Quarterly Reviews of BooksPage 1Volume LX Number 3 William and Mary Quarterly Reviews of Books 2003 by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and CultureBenjamin Franklin. By EDMUND S. MORGAN. (New Haven Conn.: Yale University Press 2002. Pp. xii 339. $24.95.) Reviewed by Jennifer J. Baker Yale UniversityDuring Benjamin Franklins lifetime his international reputation rested largely on his scientific experiments. Yet Edmund S. Morgan writes Franklin himself valued above all the practical applicationsrather than the theoriesthat derived from these experiments: the lightningrod that would protect ships and buildings the stove that would heat a home more efficiently. In keeping with Franklins own priorities Morgan has chosen to reconstruct Franklins life as it was lived usefully (p. 29). He presents not a comprehensive account but an interpretive biography focusing on Franklins public projects statecraft and diplomacy. This biography does not always proceed chronologically and it tells little of Franklins family background birth and youth in Boston. (Given the biographers angle this would make sensethough Franklin did boast in his memoirs somewhat in jest that his publicspiritedness emerged at the age of ten when he organized the construction of a wharf so his playfellows would have a place to sit while fishing for minnows.) Morgans story begins in 1726 the year Franklin at age twentyreturned from what would be the first of three trips to England during the course of his life. Told inthe historical present the opening segments present an athletic energetic and above all curious young man. Morgan draws the reader in with an absorbing survey of a lifetime of scientific endeavors: studies of pelagic crabs speculations on the repulsion of oil and water careful trackings of the Gulf Stream and numerous ...

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