In this authoritative and engrossing full-scale biography, Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Einstein and Steve Jobs, shows how the most fascinating of America's founders helped define our national character. Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us, the one who seems made of flesh rather than marble. In a sweeping narrative that follows Franklin’s life from Boston to Philadelphia to London and Paris and back, Walter Isaacson chronicles the adventures of the runaway apprentice who became, over the course of his eighty-four-year life, America’s best writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat, and business strategist, as well as one of its most practical and ingenious political leaders. He explores the wit behind Poor Richard’s Almanac and the wisdom behind the Declaration of Independence, the new nation’s alliance with France, the treaty that ended the Revolution, and the compromises that created a near-perfect Constitution. In this colorful and intimate narrative, Isaacson provides the full sweep of Franklin’s amazing life, showing how he helped to forge the American national identity and why he has a particular resonance in the twenty-first century.

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From the Publisher The Greatest Sentence Ever Written Elon Musk Steve Jobs Einstein: His Life and Universe Leonardo da Vinci The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human ... Add to Cart Add to Cart Add to Cart Add to Cart Add to Cart Add to Cart Customer Reviews 2,436 23,737 26,860 6,314 11,280 13,932 Price $11 64 $20 99 $9 99 $11 74 $17 44 $11 48 Read about some of the most influential people in history from Walter Isaacson! “A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.” —Kirkus Reviews From the #1 NYT and global bestseller from Walter Isaacson is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating, controversial innovator of modern times, Elon Musk. Driven by demons, Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values. From patent clerk to genius, Einstein comes alive in this engaging, deeply researched biography—blending clear science with a vivid portrait of the man. A compelling look at how curiosity, rebellion, and creativity can change the world. Bestseller Walter Isaacson brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography that is “a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it…Most important, it is a powerful story of an exhilarating mind and life” (The New Yorker). A “compelling” (The Washington Post) account of how Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues launched a revolution that will allow us to cure diseases, fend off viruses, and have healthier babies.