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August 03, 2005

Isaacson's Benjamin Franklin

I just finished reading Walter Isaacson's Benjamin Franklin, An American Life. I take this occasion to provide a few notes on this well-written, engaging book. I have never done this before on Abnormal Interests but will likely do it again on occasion. I will not attempt a full review of the book. You can find several on the web. I will indicate a couple of things that struck me.

First, Franklin was an immensely complex person. He maintained life long relationships with women, had many broken relationships with men and held his wife and much of his family at a distance, often a distance of thousands of miles. His closest family relationship was with his grandson, the bastard son of Franklin's bastard son. With all this raw material, Isaacson avoided any temptation to psychoanalyze. He tells the story without delving into what cannot be known and I appreciate this in a biographer. I was a little disappointed to learn that his relationships with other women after his marriage were, however sensual, largely chaste.

Second, Isaacson's portrayal of Franklin as a scientist is interesting. Franklin worked on the cutting edge of many of the scientific endeavors of his time. His experiments with electricity were extremely innovative and much of his work has stood the test of time. But he was an experimenter not a theoretician. Isaacson tells us that his math skills were very limited. As with much of Franklin's other endeavors, he sought the immediate practicality of his experiments. For this reason, Franklin "was not Galileo or Newton (p. 144)." However, it was likely his celebrity as a scientist that opened many doors in Europe through which he entered to negotiate the fate of the colonies.

Third, Isaacson repeatedly makes the point that Benjamin Franklin the shopkeeper, the scientist, the author, diplomat, the father and husband, in other words the real Franklin, was neither Poor Richard nor the Benjamin Franklin of the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Poor Richard and the Franklin of the autobiography were the creations of Franklin the author.

Fourth, Franklin, ever practical, sought compromises even at the expense of his own, sometimes strongly held, positions. For example, he strongly favored a popularly elected unicameral legislature. But when the bicameral legislature became the idea that broke one of the logjams at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 Franklin reluctantly supported it. His closing speech to the Convention illustrates Franklin as the great compromiser,

I CONFESS that I do not entirely approve of this Constitution at present; but, sir, I am not sure I shall never approve it, for, having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that, the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment of others. Most men, indeed, as well as most sects in religion, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ from them, it is so far error. . . But, though many private persons think almost as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their sect, few express it so naturally as a certain French lady, who, in a little dispute with her sister, said: "But I meet with nobody but myself that is always in the right."

In these sentiments, sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its faults, - if they are such, - because I think a general government necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people, if well administered; and I believe, further, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other. I doubt, too, whether any other convention we can obtain may be able to make a better Constitution; for, when you assemble a number of men, to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our counsels are confounded like those of the builders of Babel, and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's throats. Thus I consent, sir, to this Constitution, because I expect no better, and because I am not sure that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors I sacrifice to the public good. . .

There were those in Franklin's time and there are those today who think compromise is bad even evil. But compromise for the common good is the essence of our democracy.

While there is much more that could be discussed, one quotation, part of which Isaacson included, stands out as particularly relevant today. In a speech given during the Constitutional Convention Franklin said,

Sir, there are two passions which have a powerful influence in the affairs of men. These are ambition and avarice; the love of power and the love of money. Separately, each of these has great force in prompting men to action; but, when united in view of the same object, they have, in many minds, the most violent effects. Place before the eyes of such men a post of honor, that shall, at the same time, be a place of profit, and they will move heaven and earth to obtain it. . . .

And of what kind are the men that will strive for this profitable pre-eminence, through all the bustle of cabal, the heat of contention, the infinite mutual abuse of parties, tearing to pieces the best of characters? It will not be the wise and moderate, the lovers of peace and good order, the men fittest for the trust. It will be the bold and the violent, the men of strong passions and indefatigable activity in their selfish pursuits. These will thrust themselves into your government, and be your rulers. And these, too, will be mistaken in the expected happiness of their situation, for their vanquished competitors, of the same spirit, and from the same motives, will perpetually be endeavoring to distress their administration, thwart their measures, and render them odious to the people.

I have quoted a little more fully than Isaacson. Do the "bold and the violent, the men of strong passions and indefatigable activity in their selfish pursuits" remind you of our current leaders?
This was a great read from which I learned much but there is still much to learn.

John Ferling has the following assessment of Isaacson's Franklin the validity of which I am not competent to judge.

Isaacson has read the other biographies of Franklin, as well as his key letters and essays, but his failure to plumb the depths of the scholarly and secondary literature prevents this fine biography from becoming an exceptional life history. While Isaacson's is the most readable full-length Franklin biography available, Esmond Wright's Franklin of Philadelphia (1986) remains the most penetrating assessment of the man and his place in his time.

I guess I will need to read Wright's Franklin also.


Note: With this post I am beginning to link book titles to Amazon.com. If someone buys a book as a result of following one of these links I will get a very modest commission which I plan to use for maintenance of Abnormal Interests. While no one can accurately predict the future, I have no plans to bother anyone further about buy anything via Abnormal Interests. I hope that this new activity will not negatively affect the content of this blog. If you think it has, let me know. I justify this small commercial effort by the fact that I mention books all the time anyway. For the record, I wrote the content of this post before decided to sign up with Amazon.

Posted by DuaneSmith at August 3, 2005 01:16 PM | Read more on Odds and Ends |

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