Benjamin Franklin

An American Life

| 4.30 | 111,703 ratings and reviews

Recommended by Elon Musk, Timothy Ferriss, Ryan Holiday, and 9 others. See all reviews

Ranked #5 in American Revolution, Ranked #7 in Inventors — see more rankings.

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... more
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Reviews and Recommendations

We've comprehensively compiled reviews of Benjamin Franklin from the world's leading experts.

Elon Musk Founder/SpaceXI didn't read actually very many general business books, but I like biographies and autobiographies, I think those are pretty helpful. Actually, a lot of them aren't really business. [...] Isaacson's biography on Franklin is really good. Cause he was an entrepreneur and he sort of started from nothing, actually he was just like a run away kid, basically, and created his printing business and sort of his way of doing that, and then over time all of the science and politics. I'd say certain he's one of the few people I most admire. Franklin's pretty awesome. (Source)

Timothy Ferriss Author & EntrepreneurRecommends this book

Ryan Holiday AuthorRecommends this book

Brandon Stanton The [biography of Benjamin Franklin] I read. (Source)

Scott Belsky [Scott Belsky recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show".] (Source)

Gunhee Park Some other books I’ve really enjoyed: [...] Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. (Source)

George Raveling [I read this book and] I am blown away and a little sad because I feel like, 'God damn, I went through all this education. No one ever taught me any of this stuff.' (Source)

Ed Zschau [Ed Zschau recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show".] (Source)

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