Unimpressed

Benjamin Franklin lived one of the most interesting lives in very interesting times. It is disappointing that the author could not give a worthy account of this great life.

I'm admittedly a historical biography junkie. I much prefer 1000 page tomes to short books like this one (just over 300 pages). Even the author conceded he cannot possibly cover Franklin's life adequately in the space allotted.

This book's primary focus is on the many decades that Franklin spent abroad in England and France. The book does a reasonably good job of covering the evolution Franklin's thinking on American Independence.

Still, I was disappointed. The author has a good understanding of the basics of Franklin's life, but does not break any new ground. If he did any in depth research into his life, it doesn't really show. The book seems rather shallow. I also thought it rambled a bit and was not as well organized as it could have been.

There are a lot of good Franklin biographies out there. If you are only going to read one, I would not make it this one.