The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Oh my God, Benjamin Franklin is such a pompous blowhard. This book
read like a 200+ page humblebrag, and the takeaway message was that
Franklin was perfect and if we were all exactly like him the whole world
would be perfect, too.
Maybe that's a slight exaggeration. But only slight. And maybe part of my problem with this book was the style in which is was written, with Franklin holding himself up as a shining example of virtue and prosperity and Capitalizing every other Word for Emphasis or Something. I mean, as soon as he listed Daniel Defoe as one of his favorite authors I knew this book would be a struggle to get through. Thankfully it was short. And there was a lot of military stuff at the end that I basically just skipped.
But for all that this book was a struggle, there were a few interesting things. Though Franklin fought to make even the interesting bits extremely dry and a tad repetitive. He was influential in even more ways than I remember learning about in school, establishing some of the first libraries and volunteer firefighters and campaigning for a standardized paper currency.
My favorite part came in the middle of a bunch of unrelated stuff, and it was one of the few times Franklin's passion actually shone through. He mentions that his son died of smallpox at the age of four. At this time there was a vaccination for smallpox, but he had been unable to vaccinate his son due to other medical concerns. Franklin goes off on a rant against parents who choose not to vaccinate their children, claiming that the loss is even harder when it didn't have to happen. I guess some things never change.
This book is dry and dense and it was written before the American Revolution, meaning that it stops short of some of Franklin's most interesting contributions to our country. But there are some interesting tidbits if you can read between the lines. And at least it's short.
Maybe that's a slight exaggeration. But only slight. And maybe part of my problem with this book was the style in which is was written, with Franklin holding himself up as a shining example of virtue and prosperity and Capitalizing every other Word for Emphasis or Something. I mean, as soon as he listed Daniel Defoe as one of his favorite authors I knew this book would be a struggle to get through. Thankfully it was short. And there was a lot of military stuff at the end that I basically just skipped.
But for all that this book was a struggle, there were a few interesting things. Though Franklin fought to make even the interesting bits extremely dry and a tad repetitive. He was influential in even more ways than I remember learning about in school, establishing some of the first libraries and volunteer firefighters and campaigning for a standardized paper currency.
My favorite part came in the middle of a bunch of unrelated stuff, and it was one of the few times Franklin's passion actually shone through. He mentions that his son died of smallpox at the age of four. At this time there was a vaccination for smallpox, but he had been unable to vaccinate his son due to other medical concerns. Franklin goes off on a rant against parents who choose not to vaccinate their children, claiming that the loss is even harder when it didn't have to happen. I guess some things never change.
This book is dry and dense and it was written before the American Revolution, meaning that it stops short of some of Franklin's most interesting contributions to our country. But there are some interesting tidbits if you can read between the lines. And at least it's short.
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