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Benjamin Franklin (Franklin, Benjamin - Early): Works
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Benjamin Franklin (Franklin, Benjamin - Scientist) , and more.
Benjamin Franklin (Franklin, Benjamin - Scientist) , and more.
Benjamin Franklin was concerned with making the sometimes bitter pill of truth about the human condition easier to swallow by wrapping it in the fictive guise of maxims and homilies. His most famous work, Poor Richard's Almanack, was composed of sayings from various sources that his readers could both find familiar and take to heart. The core of these maxims was the topic of ethical behavior, and in "The Way to Wealth," Franklin refines and revises the maxims from the Almanack, making them more subtle and sophisticated. To present these truths in the pleasant form to which his readers had become accustomed and to underscore their underlying theme that the sayings are futile without action, Franklin employs an elaborate framework of narrator within narrator. This device allows him to present the maxims at multiple levels in order to lead the reader to Franklin's own understanding of ethical behavior. Most critical comment on the work focuses on the multiple levels of narrative structure, very often pointing out the subtle dichotomy between words and actions, while analyzing the strategies which Franklin employed to produce his intended effect on the readers.
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Since almost all of Franklin's writing is occasional, prompted by a specific situation and written for a particular audience, a consideration of situation and audience is crucial for understanding his work. Each of the satires, for example, is designed for a particular audience and situation. Also, Poor Richard's Almanac can nly be appreciated when it is viewed as a popular publication for a group of nonliterary farmers and mechanics. In contrast, Franklin's French bagatelles are written for a very sophisticated audience who would savor their complex persona and ambiguously ironic tone. The Autobiography is designed not merely for Franklin's contemporaries but for posterity as well. Consequently, one of the most interesting features of the study of Franklin as a writer is an examination of the ways in which he adapts his style, tone, organization, and personae to a variety of audiences and situations.
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The famed preacher George Whitefield arrives in 1739, and despite significant differences in their religious beliefs, Franklin assists Whitefield by printing his sermons and journals and by lodging him in his house. As Franklin continues to succeed, he provides the capital for several of his workers to start printing houses of their own in other colonies. He makes further proposals for the public good, including some for the defense of Pennsylvania, in which he has to contend with the pacifist position of the Quakers.
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[I]t can be argued that Franklin's greatest invention of all was the United States of America. Of course Franklin did not create this invention alone, but he started it, he pursued it and he saw it through to completion. While the "states" existed then as British colonies, what wasn't there was the concept of "union," the glue necessary to bind those colonies into a nation. When Franklin began his work on this great experiment in 1751, some 25 years prior to the Declaration of Independence, the colonies were anything but united, and they had little interest in becoming so.
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Franklin's contribution to the creation of an American national identity is perhaps the most important theme that needs to be emphasized. In connection with this, the students can discuss his role in the shift in the American consciousness from an otherworldly to a this-worldly viewpoint. Franklin's abandonment of Puritanism in favor of the enlightenment's rationalism reflects a central shift in American society in the eighteenth century. In addition, his works reflect the growing awareness of America as a country with values and interests distinct from those of England--a movement that, of course, finds its climax in the Revolution. Franklin's participation in the growing confidence of the eighteenth century that humanity could, through personal effort and social reform, analyze and deal with social problems reveals the optimism and self-confidence of his age, as do his scientific achievements. His belief that theory should be tested primarily by experience not logic ... reflects his age's belief that reason should be tested pragmatically.
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Franklin was born in 1706 and died in 1790. Carl Menger was born in 1840, died in 1921 and his fountainhead of work - Principles of Economics - was first produced in 1871. So, given Franklin's many talents and meaningful, if not prolific, writings, perhaps in addition to his other worldly contributions, he should have developed the Principles of Economics (Austrian style), say 80 to 100 years in advance of Menger. Is this the real critique of his essay? Just think how different the world would be if Ben had only added this one more accomplishment to his day.
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