Summary of Gordon S. Wood's The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706. He was the youngest son of 17 children, and the only one who did not receive an estate from his ancestors.

#2 Franklin’s father chose to train him to be a candle and soap maker, but he soon realized that his son’s bookish inclinations would better suit the printing trade. He placed him under the care of an older brother, who signed him up for an unusually long apprenticeship of nine years.

#3 Franklin’s brother started the New England Courant in Boston in 1721, which was the fourth newspaper in the city. These newspapers were simple and bland, and they usually contained reprints of European news, ship sailings, and various advertisements. They were expensive, but they could still reach beneath the topmost ranks of the city’s population of twelve thousand people.

#4 James Franklin’s first newspaper was not published by authority. It satirized the Boston establishment, and he took great pleasure in fooling people into thinking that only men of some character among us for learning and ingenuity could have written the newspaper pieces.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669385547

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Insights on Gordon S. Wood's The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706. He was the youngest son of 17 children, and the only one who did not receive an estate from his ancestors.

#2

Franklin’s father chose to train him to be a candle and soap maker, but he soon realized that his son’s bookish inclinations would better suit the printing trade. He placed him under the care of an older brother, who signed him up for an unusually long apprenticeship of nine years.

#3

Franklin’s brother started the New England Courant in Boston in 1721, which was the fourth newspaper in the city. These newspapers were simple and bland, and they usually contained reprints of European news, ship sailings, and various advertisements. They were expensive, but they could still reach beneath the topmost ranks of the city’s population of twelve thousand people.

#4

James Franklin’s first newspaper was not published by authority. It satirized the Boston establishment, and he took great pleasure in fooling people into thinking that only men of some character among us for learning and ingenuity could have written the newspaper pieces.

#5

Franklin’s brother found out who the author of the Silence Dogood essays was, and he was not happy. He thought the praise the essays were receiving made the young teenager too vain. Franklin, as he admitted, was probably too saucy and provoking to his brother.

#6

When Franklin arrived in Philadelphia in 1723, he was hungry, tired, and dirty. He bought three rolls, and with a Roll under each Arm, and eating the other, he wandered around Market, Chestnut, and Walnut Streets. He eventually stumbled into a Quaker meetinghouse on Second Street.

#7

Benjamin Franklin was a very amiable and talented teenager who soon became an artisan in Philadelphia. He knew more about printing than his employer, Samuel Keimer, and his future as an artisan looked very promising.

#8

Franklin’s rise from obscurity to success was not unique in eighteenth century America, as many young men moved up the social ladder in both America and Britain. But Franklin’s rise was particularly spectacular, as he was pre-existing no one’s expectations.

#9

Patronage was the primary means of