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Young Benjamin Franklin : the birth of ingenuity / Nick Bunker.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2018Copyright date: ©2018Edition: First editionDescription: viii, 445 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), color map ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781101874417
  • 1101874414
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Prologue: The enigmatic seer -- Part one: Beginnings -- His ingenious kin -- Coats of many colors -- Coming to America -- Part two: A Boston boy -- His happy childhood -- Mr. Pemberton's method -- For the love of books -- Part three: The breakout -- The New-England Courant -- The crusade of the Delaware -- Forgetting Boston -- Little Britain -- The papists of Duke Street -- Part four: The weekly grind -- Seaweed, sickness, and the junto -- Citizen Franklin -- Years of success -- The Devil's instrument -- War and Mr. Whitefield -- Part five; The dawn of American science -- A change of life -- Colden, Franklin, and the two frontiers -- A calling found -- Epilogue: An uneasy spirit.
Summary: "From his early career as a printer and journalist, to his scientific work and his role as a founder of a new republic, Benjamin Franklin has always seemed the inevitable embodiment of American ingenuity. But in his youth he had to make his way through a harsh colonial world where he fought many battles: with his rivals, but also with his wayward emotions. Taking Franklin to the age of forty-one, when he made his first electrical discoveries, Bunker goes behind the legend to reveal the sources of his passion for knowledge. Always trying to balance virtue against ambition, Franklin emerges as a brilliant but flawed human being, made from the conflicts of an age of slavery as well as reason. With archival material from both sides of the Atlantic, we see Franklin in Boston, London, and Philadelphia, as he develops his formula for greatness. A tale of science, politics, war, and religion, this is also a story about Franklin's forebears: the talented family of English craftsmen who produced America's favorite genius."-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Biography Franklin B. B942 Available 33111009259553
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In this new account of Franklin's early life, Pulitzer finalist Nick Bunker portrays him as a complex, driven young man who elbows his way to success.

From his early career as a printer and journalist to his scientific work and his role as a founder of a new republic, Benjamin Franklin has always seemed the inevitable embodiment of American ingenuity. But in his youth he had to make his way through a harsh colonial world, where he fought many battles with his rivals, but also with his wayward emotions. Taking Franklin to the age of forty-one, when he made his first electrical discoveries, Bunker goes behind the legend to reveal the sources of his passion for knowledge. Always trying to balance virtue against ambition, Franklin emerges as a brilliant but flawed human being, made from the conflicts of an age of slavery as well as reason. With archival material from both sides of the Atlantic, we see Franklin in Boston, London, and Philadelphia as he develops his formula for greatness. A tale of science, politics, war, and religion, this is also a story about Franklin's forebears: the talented family of English craftsmen who produced America's favorite genius.

"From his early career as a printer and journalist, to his scientific work and his role as a founder of a new republic, Benjamin Franklin has always seemed the inevitable embodiment of American ingenuity. But in his youth he had to make his way through a harsh colonial world where he fought many battles: with his rivals, but also with his wayward emotions. Taking Franklin to the age of forty-one, when he made his first electrical discoveries, Bunker goes behind the legend to reveal the sources of his passion for knowledge. Always trying to balance virtue against ambition, Franklin emerges as a brilliant but flawed human being, made from the conflicts of an age of slavery as well as reason. With archival material from both sides of the Atlantic, we see Franklin in Boston, London, and Philadelphia, as he develops his formula for greatness. A tale of science, politics, war, and religion, this is also a story about Franklin's forebears: the talented family of English craftsmen who produced America's favorite genius."-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Prologue: The enigmatic seer -- Part one: Beginnings -- His ingenious kin -- Coats of many colors -- Coming to America -- Part two: A Boston boy -- His happy childhood -- Mr. Pemberton's method -- For the love of books -- Part three: The breakout -- The New-England Courant -- The crusade of the Delaware -- Forgetting Boston -- Little Britain -- The papists of Duke Street -- Part four: The weekly grind -- Seaweed, sickness, and the junto -- Citizen Franklin -- Years of success -- The Devil's instrument -- War and Mr. Whitefield -- Part five; The dawn of American science -- A change of life -- Colden, Franklin, and the two frontiers -- A calling found -- Epilogue: An uneasy spirit.

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