Audio only
Benjamin Franklin's Last Bet
The Favorite Founder's Divisive Death, Enduring Afterlife, and Blueprint for American ProsperityBy Michael MeyerNarrated by Donald CorrenLength10h 4m
About this audiobook
The incredible story of Benjamin Franklin’s parting gift to the working-class people of Boston and Philadelphia—a deathbed wager that captures the Founder’s American Dream and his lessons for our current, conflicted age.
Benjamin Franklin was not a gambling man. But at the end of his illustrious life, the Founder allowed himself a final wager on the survival of the United States: a gift of two thousand pounds to Boston and Philadelphia, to be lent out to tradesmen over the next two centuries to jump-start their careers. Each loan would be repaid with interest over ten years. If all went according to Franklin’s inventive scheme, the accrued final payout in 1991 would be a windfall.
In Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet, Michael Meyer traces the evolution of these twin funds as they age alongside America itself, bankrolling woodworkers and silversmiths, trade schools and space races. Over time, Franklin’s wager was misused, neglected, and contested—but never wholly extinguished. With charm and inquisitive flair, Meyer shows how Franklin’s stake in the “leather-apron” class remains in play to this day, and offers an inspiring blueprint for prosperity in our modern era of growing wealth disparity and social divisions.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.0 (365)
Includes Goodreads, Amazon, LibraryThing
GenreHistory, Biography and Memoir
Length10 hrs 4 mins
Narrated byDonald Corren
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateApr 12, 2022
LanguageEnglish
A Brief History of IntelligenceMax S. Bennett12h 18m4.6 (6.6K)$29 · $0.00
Black AF HistoryMichael Harriot15h 43m4.7 (14.6K)$33 · $0.00
The Gulag Archipelago Volume 3Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn21h 56m4.7 (8.9K)$46 · $0.00
Pearl of Great PriceJoseph Smith3h 8m4.7 (7.2K)$1.20 · $0.00
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m4.6 (178K)$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
RevolutionariesSanjeev Sanyal11h 23m4.6 (2.6K)$29 · $0.00
Days of Love and Rage: A Story of RevolutionAnand Gopal22h 36m4.7 (584)$34 · $0.00
We Crossed a Bridge and It TrembledWendy Pearlman6h4.6 (5.2K)$24 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m4.6 (16.7K)$26 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m4.6 (16.1K)$29 · $0.00
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m4.6 (927)$29 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m4.6 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
BeyondStephen Walker15h 39m4.6 (3.2K)$33 · $0.00
Kings and PawnsHoward Bryant10h 9m4.6 (678)$29 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
Jubal Stone: U.S. Marshal: Blood Trail To Hell: A Western Adventure NovelCasey Nash3h 42m4.6 (3.2K)$18 · $0.00
The Way of RoninTu Lam12h 9m4.9 (1.3K)$29 · $0.00
Matters of the HeartJacinta Nampijinpa Price9h 35m4.8 (359)$29 · $0.00
The StepsSylvester Stallone9h 4m4.8 (635)$29 · $0.00
How to Test Negative for StupidJohn Kennedy8h 13m4.7 (9.7K)$28 · $0.00
Bad Fat Black GirlSesali Bowen6h 32m4.7 (2.8K)$24 · $0.00
Send MeMarty Skovlund, Joe Kent8h 10m4.7 (1.6K)$26 · $0.00
John Muir: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth & Letters to a Friend (Annotated)John Muir10h 13m4.7 (1.1K)$1.99 · $0.00
Invisible StormJason Kander6h 48m4.7 (3.2K)$24 · $0.00
Forever BoyKate Swenson9h 27m4.7 (5K)$29 · $0.00
You Are Worth ItKyle Carpenter, Don Yaeger8h 53m4.7 (4.8K)$29 · $0.00
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m4.6 (178K)$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m4.6 (11.9K)$29 · $0.00
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
Will You Love Me?Cathy Glass9h 5m4.6 (9.3K)$29 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m4.7 (343)$20 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m4.6 (10.8K)$24 · $0.00
Finding MeViola Davis9h 15m4.6 (256.4K)$29 · $0.00
The Dangerous Truth about Today’s MarijuanaLaura Stack CSP, MBA9h 57m4.7 (385)$20 · $0.00
Birdie & HarlowTaylor Wolfe7h 50m4.6 (6.5K)$26 · $0.00
You may also like
Amazing GraceEric Metaxas10h 26m4.2 (17.6K)$29 · $0.00
The AnalectsConfucius4h 56m4.0 (35K)$2 · $0.00
The Water Is WidePat Conroy9h 17m4.1 (34.5K)$8 · $0.00
The Courage to Be FreeRon DeSantis9h4.1 (6.3K)$29 · $0.00
Benjamin FranklinKathleen Krull1h 59m4.1 (1.5K)$15
My Own StoryEmmeline Pankhurst13h 15m4.2 (3.7K)$1 · $0.00
We Are Our Mothers' DaughtersCokie Roberts7h 44m4.0 (1.3K)$26 · $0.00
The Memoirs of Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Eighty Years and MoreElizabeth Cady Stanton16h 5m4.2 (1.5K)$1.99 · $0.00
Capital DamesCokie Roberts14h 36m4.0 (3.5K)$33 · $0.00
The Republicansthe Speech Resource Company10h 9m$20
America’s First Freedom RiderJerry Mikorenda6h 22m4.2 (64)$17
JFKStephen Kennedy Smith, Douglas Brinkley12h 36m4.6 (180)$33 · $0.00
History of Women's Marches – The Political Battle of Suffragettes (Complete 6 Volume Edition)Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Matilda Gage, Harriot Stanton Blatch, Ida H. Harper307h$1 · $0.00
HISTORY OF WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE Trilogy – Part 1 (Illustrated) (Annotated)Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Harriot Stanton Blatch, Matilda Gage176h 31m$2 · $0.00
The Complete History of Women's Suffrage – All 6 Volumes in One Edition (Illustrated Edition)Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Gage, Harriot Stanton Blatch, Ida H. Harper305h 46m4.6 (111)$1.99 · $0.00
Benjamin Franklin: Self-Revealed (Vol. 1&2)Wiliam Cabell Bruce38h 42m4.2 (18)$1.99 · $0.00
Redeeming the DreamDavid Boies, Theodore B. Olson12h 28m4.4 (237)$23
What I Remember (Annotated)Millicent Garrett Fawcett9h 5m$1.99 · $0.00
THE GREAT SOCIETYCarol Beatrice Fontaine6h 23m$7
The eleventh hour in the life of Julia Ward HoweMaud Howe Elliott1h 44m$2 · $0.00