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zenwombat's review against another edition
2.0
A few gems, but largely few that haven't been repeated elsewhere.
alexsintschenko's review against another edition
3.0
I'm almost certain this is much more illuminating of a read if one were to be better acquainted with Benjamin Franklin's life. My knowledge being limited to him being an autodidact, founding father and a guy who did something with a kite once, I must admit, I am not much wiser after reading his autobiography.
However, this is largely my mistake and I'll probably revise my rating if I ever decide to read an actual biography with more historical context.
However, this is largely my mistake and I'll probably revise my rating if I ever decide to read an actual biography with more historical context.
tsharris's review against another edition
3.0
The first half - right up until his account of his program of self-improvement and his account of the essential virtues - is a brilliant account of one of the finest American minds. The second half is all over the place and gets down into the weeds regarding Franklin's role in provisioning British troops for the Seven Years' War, which made for difficult reading.
kathiej's review against another edition
3.0
Helping with the kids HS homework. Ben was an exceptional person but did he not have a big ego?
jmoriarty's review against another edition
4.0
Fascinating tidbits from one of the most influential men at the founding of the United States, it is sadly incomplete but a worthwhile peek into the mind of a genius.
lpm100's review against another edition
slow-paced
2.0
Book Review
2/5 stars
"A combination of Thomas Edison and Henry Kissinger."
Even though this book is 136 pages, it's not exactly a light read. It is written in familiar English, but it has that clunky style that people used a few of centuries back.
If you are looking to hear about his invention of bifocals or the water harmonica, you will not find that from this book.
Part I: Life up until ≈1739 (54pps). Interrupted by revolutionary war.
Part II: Life's philosophy (18pps)
Part III: 1733-1757. (60pps) resumed in August 1788, a couple of years before his death.
Part IV: A few random events around 1757
To be honest, even though this is Benjamin Franklin in his own words, I think that I enjoyed the Walter Isaacson autobiography a bit better. And that is because it was a professional research project that drew in many sources to make a more complete picture.
This book does not have the talents of a person who writes professionally, and that could have helped with the narrative arc--it was otherwise intensely boring.
Even though the book was only 136 pages it read like it was 350--quite a boring slog.
Some of the more interesting points about Franklin's life:
1. He was the son of his father's second marriage, and between two marriages his father raised 17 children.
2. Franklin was only one generation away from living in England, and his family had records going back several centuries. It seems that they were literate for quite some time. (He started the book as an Englishman and finished as an American.)
3. He was indentured at 12 years old to a printer - - his brother - - and was to continue up until 9 years to become a journeyman.
Good thinking is time independent, and what I get from this are a number of quotes as well as mental habits of a productive person.
4. There was not even a standardized currency during the time of his earlier life. He talks about paper money in Boston and silver coin in Philadelphia. (p. 23)
5. Boston to Philadelphia back in those days was a two-week journey.
6. In these days before any unified US currency, Franklin was actually a currency printer.
7. His pen name was Richard Saunders, hence "Poor Richard's Almanac," and from this he made a considerable amount of money.
8. (p.79) He lost a 4-year-old son because he was too lazy to vax him (for whatever reason). This was way back in 1736.
9. He took turns of duty as a common soldier.
10. He was a founding member/trustee of the University of Pennsylvania.
11. (p.112) he was the first and witness to the uncouth behavior of the English troops, as well as a witness to the fact that their military prowess was most overrated. No this is 57 right here and the other one I already read like you know some of it and so it's like I might be able to finish tomorrow because it's you know
Habits:
1. Voracious reader.
2. Learned from the School of Hard Knocks.
3. I see him as a combination of the Hofferian Man of Words (in the sense that his output was words) and Hofferian Man of Action (in the sense that he had to keep a business open and profitable in order to speak those words; his writing has a parsimony that belies the fact that he was counting every word written because in his business every word cost money).
4. "That hard-to-be-governed passion of youth hurried me frequently into intrigues with low women that fell in my way, which were attended with some expense and great inconvenience, besides a continual risk to my health by a distemper which of all things are dreaded, though by great luck I escaped it."
5. Like all men of words, he sought influence."I considered my newspaper, also, as another means of communicating instruction..." (p.75)
6. He was a member of a voluntary / secret organization called the Junto society.
7. A flaneur. By the later part of his life, his business activity had made him enough of a fortune so that he could have eff-you money and spend his time as a flaneur / dabbler/inventor.
Quotes:
1. My father convinced me that nothing was useful which was not honest.
2. Since such a repetition is not to be expected, the next thing most like living one's life over again seems to be a recollection of that life, and to make that recollection is durable as possible by putting it down in writing.
3. A man is sometimes more generous when he has but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps through fear of being thought to have but little.
4. There was great difference in persons; and discretion did not always accompany years, nor was youth always without it.
5. He wished to please everybody; and, having little to give, he gave expectations.
6.. I grew convinced that truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life.... Revelation had indeed no weight with me as such.
7. But he knew a little out of his way, and was not a pleasing companion; as, like most great mathematicians I have met with, he expected universal precision in everything said, or was forever denying or distinguishing upon trifles, to the disturbance of all conversation.
8. The spoken word perishes, the written word remains. (Latin proverb. "Litera scripta manet.")
9. If it be the design of Providence to extirpate these savages in order to make room for cultivators of the earth, it seems not improbable that rum may be the appointed means. It is already annihilated all the tribes who formerly inhabited the seacoast. (Yikes! Seems like Indians have had problems with alcohol for many centuries.)
10. Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are there for seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.
Verdict: NOT RECOMMENDED.
Archaic words:
fair
compleat
chid
dram/dramming
chuse
confuting
pistoles
(nuncupative will)
crimp's bill
Junto
Dunker
caluminate
hautboy (oboe)
pacquet boat
2/5 stars
"A combination of Thomas Edison and Henry Kissinger."
Even though this book is 136 pages, it's not exactly a light read. It is written in familiar English, but it has that clunky style that people used a few of centuries back.
If you are looking to hear about his invention of bifocals or the water harmonica, you will not find that from this book.
Part I: Life up until ≈1739 (54pps). Interrupted by revolutionary war.
Part II: Life's philosophy (18pps)
Part III: 1733-1757. (60pps) resumed in August 1788, a couple of years before his death.
Part IV: A few random events around 1757
To be honest, even though this is Benjamin Franklin in his own words, I think that I enjoyed the Walter Isaacson autobiography a bit better. And that is because it was a professional research project that drew in many sources to make a more complete picture.
This book does not have the talents of a person who writes professionally, and that could have helped with the narrative arc--it was otherwise intensely boring.
Even though the book was only 136 pages it read like it was 350--quite a boring slog.
Some of the more interesting points about Franklin's life:
1. He was the son of his father's second marriage, and between two marriages his father raised 17 children.
2. Franklin was only one generation away from living in England, and his family had records going back several centuries. It seems that they were literate for quite some time. (He started the book as an Englishman and finished as an American.)
3. He was indentured at 12 years old to a printer - - his brother - - and was to continue up until 9 years to become a journeyman.
Good thinking is time independent, and what I get from this are a number of quotes as well as mental habits of a productive person.
4. There was not even a standardized currency during the time of his earlier life. He talks about paper money in Boston and silver coin in Philadelphia. (p. 23)
5. Boston to Philadelphia back in those days was a two-week journey.
6. In these days before any unified US currency, Franklin was actually a currency printer.
7. His pen name was Richard Saunders, hence "Poor Richard's Almanac," and from this he made a considerable amount of money.
8. (p.79) He lost a 4-year-old son because he was too lazy to vax him (for whatever reason). This was way back in 1736.
9. He took turns of duty as a common soldier.
10. He was a founding member/trustee of the University of Pennsylvania.
11. (p.112) he was the first and witness to the uncouth behavior of the English troops, as well as a witness to the fact that their military prowess was most overrated. No this is 57 right here and the other one I already read like you know some of it and so it's like I might be able to finish tomorrow because it's you know
Habits:
1. Voracious reader.
2. Learned from the School of Hard Knocks.
3. I see him as a combination of the Hofferian Man of Words (in the sense that his output was words) and Hofferian Man of Action (in the sense that he had to keep a business open and profitable in order to speak those words; his writing has a parsimony that belies the fact that he was counting every word written because in his business every word cost money).
4. "That hard-to-be-governed passion of youth hurried me frequently into intrigues with low women that fell in my way, which were attended with some expense and great inconvenience, besides a continual risk to my health by a distemper which of all things are dreaded, though by great luck I escaped it."
5. Like all men of words, he sought influence."I considered my newspaper, also, as another means of communicating instruction..." (p.75)
6. He was a member of a voluntary / secret organization called the Junto society.
7. A flaneur. By the later part of his life, his business activity had made him enough of a fortune so that he could have eff-you money and spend his time as a flaneur / dabbler/inventor.
Quotes:
1. My father convinced me that nothing was useful which was not honest.
2. Since such a repetition is not to be expected, the next thing most like living one's life over again seems to be a recollection of that life, and to make that recollection is durable as possible by putting it down in writing.
3. A man is sometimes more generous when he has but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps through fear of being thought to have but little.
4. There was great difference in persons; and discretion did not always accompany years, nor was youth always without it.
5. He wished to please everybody; and, having little to give, he gave expectations.
6.. I grew convinced that truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life.... Revelation had indeed no weight with me as such.
7. But he knew a little out of his way, and was not a pleasing companion; as, like most great mathematicians I have met with, he expected universal precision in everything said, or was forever denying or distinguishing upon trifles, to the disturbance of all conversation.
8. The spoken word perishes, the written word remains. (Latin proverb. "Litera scripta manet.")
9. If it be the design of Providence to extirpate these savages in order to make room for cultivators of the earth, it seems not improbable that rum may be the appointed means. It is already annihilated all the tribes who formerly inhabited the seacoast. (Yikes! Seems like Indians have had problems with alcohol for many centuries.)
10. Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are there for seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.
Verdict: NOT RECOMMENDED.
Archaic words:
fair
compleat
chid
dram/dramming
chuse
confuting
pistoles
(nuncupative will)
crimp's bill
Junto
Dunker
caluminate
hautboy (oboe)
pacquet boat
haazex's review against another edition
3.0
The first part of the autobiography was quite interesting depicting the early years of Franklin's life. It was written when he was in his 60's. However, the second part (written when he was in his 80s) is very different seemingly lacking in introspection while emphasizing logistics (where, when, names, titles etc) in a sligthly overbearing manner. Still a good portrait and perspective of the colonial days. There is a horrendous passage that conveys Franklin's view of the Native Americans and the habit of rum drinking. The autobiography was well worth reading.
jblmk's review against another edition
5.0
An enjoyable read which after I was motivated to do good .
guatedina's review against another edition
4.0
This is an unfinished autobiography and I am left wanting more B Franklin's insights, on all that led up to our war of independence, his insights into the founding fathers, and so much more. The picture he gives of his early life is expansive and brings to life many customs long lost to time.