WALTER ISAACSON NEW BIOGRAPHY
The Untold Story Behind How Benjamin Franklin Shaped Revolution, Forged Freedom, and Defined An American LifeBy GRANTSON EUGENE
Length5h 8m
About this audiobook
He never attended college. He ran away at seventeen with nothing but a hunger to matter. Yet Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod, secured America's independence, helped draft the Declaration, and charmed two continents, all while writing some of history's most enduring prose.
But beneath the wit and wisdom lived a man of startling contradictions. He preached thrift while living lavishly in Paris. He championed liberty while owning enslaved people for decades. His devoted wife died alone in Philadelphia while he formed deep bonds with French noblewomen abroad.
This book does not soften that Franklin.
Drawing on his correspondence, Poor Richard's Almanack, congressional records, and diplomatic cables from Versailles, this biography reconstructs the first great American story — and holds up a mirror to the nation he built.
Fifteen chapters. Eighty-four years. One man who made America possible, then spent his life trying to make it worthy of its promise.
Grab your copy today.
Audiobook details
GenreBiography and Memoir, History
Length5 hrs 8 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateAug 6, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1The Untold Story Behind How Benjamin Franklin Shaped Revolution, Forged Freedom, and Defined An Amer
6610.1 Coiffed in a Coonskin Cap: The Performance of Rustic Genius
2PROLOGUE
6710.2 Madame Helvétius, Madame Brillon, and the Art of Charmed Negotiation
3The Man on the Coin
6810.3 The Alliance with France: America's Most Important Deal
4Philadelphia, April 1790
69The Paris Experiment
5PART ONE: THE MAKING OF A MAN
70CHAPTER 11
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6Boston Born, Boston Bound
7111.1 Playing Britain Against France: Franklin's Masterclass in Realpolitik
71.1 Josiah Franklin's Household: Candles, Soap, and Seventeen Children
7211.2 John Adams, John Jay, and the Art of Difficult Partnerships
81.2 The Grammar School Door That Closed Too Soon
7311.3 The Peace of Paris (1783) and What It Really Won
91.3 Under His Brother's Thumb: The Apprentice and the Press
74The Significance of the Treaty
10CHAPTER 2
75The Legacy of the Treaty
112.1 Midnight Flight to Philadelphia — A City That Would Claim Him
76CHAPTER 12
122.2 London Interlude: The Young Printer Finds His Footing
7712.1 Balloon Ascents, Chess, and the Pleasures of an Old Man's Paris
132.3 Deborah Read and the Complicated Architecture of Marriage
7812.2 Farewell to the Court of Versailles
14CHAPTER 3
7912.3 The Ocean Voyage Home: Notes on a Life in Progress
153.1 The Pennsylvania Gazette and the Birth of American Journalism
80CHAPTER 13
163.2 Poor Richard's Almanack: Wisdom as Product, Wit as Brand
8113.1 The Oldest Delegate in the Room — and the Wisest
173.3 The Junto Club: Building a Brotherhood of Self-Improvement
8213.2 The Great Compromise and the Art of Acceptable Imperfection
18The Print as Both Business and Civic Tool
8313.3 The Slavery Question: Franklin's Tortured, Delayed Reckoning
19The Lessons of the Printer's Trade
84The Tortured Reckoning
20The Complex Personality Behind the Print Shop
85The Legacy of the Constitution
21CHAPTER 4
86CHAPTER 14
224.1 Kite, Key, and Storm: The Experiment That Electrified the World
8714.1 President of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society: A Conversion Late in Coming
234.2 Letters to London: Science as Diplomacy Before There Was Diplomacy
8814.2 The Autobiography That Was Never Finished
244.3 The Lightning Rod and the Democratization of Safety
8914.3 April 17, 1790: The Room Falls Quiet
25The Philosophical Implications
90The Immediate National Outpouring of Grief
26The Controversy Over Priority
91The Legacy
27The Scientist's Legacy
92CHAPTER 15
28The Human Element
9315.1 Franklin's Afterlife in the National Imagination
29The Broader Context
9415.2 From the $100 Bill to Silicon Valley: The Pragmatist's Enduring Blueprint
30The Enduring Significance
9515.3 What Benjamin Franklin Still Owes Us — and What We Owe Him
31CHAPTER 5
96The Most Relatable and Most Complicated Founder
325.1 Paving Streets, Building Libraries, Founding Hospitals — The Civic Visionary
97The Enduring Question
335.2 The Academy That Became a University: Penn's Unlikely Origin
98EPILOGUE
345.3 Militia, Fire Companies, and the Politics of Community
99An American Life, Still Unfolding
35The Theory of Civic Republicanism
100CONCLUSION / AFTERWORD
36The Tensions Between Civic Generosity and Personal Ambition
101The Journalist's Reflection
37The Legacy of Civic Franklin
102ENDNOTES
38The Human Element
103Introduction
39The Enduring Significance
104Chapter 1: Boston Born, Boston Bound
40CHAPTER 6
105Chapter 2: The Runaway
416.1 William Franklin: The Favorite Son Who Would Become a Loyalist
106Chapter 3: The Printer Becomes a Publisher
426.2 Sally Franklin and the Daughter History Overlooked
107Chapter 4: The Electrician
436.3 Deborah's Philadelphia While Benjamin Conquered the World
108Chapter 5: Civic Franklin
44The Family's Legacy
109Chapter 6: The Philosopher at Home
45The Absent Father
110Chapter 7: London, at Last
46CHAPTER 7
111Chapter 8: The Crisis Deepens
477.2 Craven Street: A Second Home and a Second Life
112Chapter 9: The Revolutionary Committeeman
487.3 Friendships, Flirtations, and the Women Who Shaped His Thinking
113Chapter 10: Passy and the Paris Experiment
49The Growing Tensions
114Chapter 11: The Treaty That Ended a War
50The Duality of the Man
115Chapter 12: The Long Goodbye to Europe
51The Turning Point
116Chapter 13: The Constitutional Convention
52The Limits of Love
117Chapter 14: Last Words
53CHAPTER 8
118Chapter 15: The American He Made
548.1 The Stamp Act and Franklin's Embarrassing Miscalculation
119Epilogue
558.2 Before the Privy Council: Humiliation as Radicalization
120BIBLIOGRAPHY
568.3 The Point of No Return — Crossing the Atlantic with Revolution in His Heart
121Primary Sources
57The Transformation
122Franklin's Writings
58The Costs of Revolution
123Other Contemporary Sources
59The Legacy
124Secondary Sources
60CHAPTER 9
125Biographies
619.1 Philadelphia Again: The Continental Congress and an Old Man's New Purpose
126Specialized Studies
629.2 The Declaration and Franklin's Quiet Edits
127Histories of the Revolutionary Era
639.3 The Mission That Could Not Fail: Paris or Defeat
128Reference Works
64The New Purpose
129ABOUT THE AUTHOR
65CHAPTER 10
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