Required reading, I suppose, for those of us trying to grasp the mindset of the founders of the United States. Franklin’s free-wheeling book flits from topic to topic, now an account of his early apprentice printing days, now a lengthy diatribe on the back-and-forth of a particular political struggle. Peppered with anecdotes, proverbs and false modesty.

I find Franklin fascinating. I at once want to be exactly like him and nothing like him. He’s a conundrum, at once piercingly moral and yet full of falsity and selfishness. He’s brilliant and driven and gets things done, but he glosses over his own shortcomings (while insidiously painting a picture of complete honesty and introspection). Franklin is a character too complex to have ever been invented–he is a confounding reality, too big for fiction.

Franklin was in many ways a progressive. He cites the importance of education for women (albeit with the goal of filling in gaps whilst husbands or sons are incapacitated) and religious tolerance and diversity (”…even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach Mohammedanism to us, he would find a pulpit at his service”), yet he labels Native Americans as “savages”, bent on simplistic overindulgence and wanton slaughter, following the traditional parlance and bigotry of the time.

My rating reflects not the historical worth of this document but my fulfillment and enjoyment upon reading it. The lengthy passages about Franklin’s struggles in political office and the debating of bills and whatnot in Assemblies bored the pants off of me–it’s simply not in any category that interests me. Those more driven by political science and government structure would likely rate the whole work higher. ( )