Benjamin Franklin

In this meticulously researched study of Franklin's life down to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, David Freeman Hawke has drawn on the best from the flood of recent scholarly work to present the man in all his complexity. Hawke seeks to present sides of Franklin seldom emphasized in previous works: the visionary, the politician, the electrical experimenter. Throughout the book he constantly poses a single question: What manner of man was Franklin? In the end, he leaves it up to the reader to judge for himself.