From Deseret News archives:

Franklin fascinating in author's portrayal

Published: Saturday, July 17, 2004 11:24 p.m. MDT
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
With the publication of his new book, "The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin," Gordon Wood has joined the pantheon of recent scholars whose works of history are worthy of best-seller lists. Wood's book is down-to-earth and fascinating.

A Harvard-educated Bostonian, Wood now lives in Providence, R.I., where he teaches American history at prestigious Brown University. He is prolific, but his most important academic work may be "The Radicalism of the American Revolution," which won the Pulitzer Prize for history in 1991.

Now in his 70s, Wood is on the verge of becoming professor emeritus — but the books will keep coming.

Of this latest work, Wood said that he read Franklin's papers in the 1970s and was struck by them. "It was not the Franklin I knew — the American patriot," he said by phone from Providence. "He was critical of America, absorbed in England and parochial. Other scholars don't realize how close he came to remaining a Brit. If he had been offered a position in the British political hierarchy, America would have lost him."

Story continues below
Wood "stewed" about Franklin for several years, he said, finally incorporating some of his ideas into his book on the American Revolution. "Franklin was constantly aware of what people would think. He wanted to appear to be the right kind of man — like Dale Carnegie (author of "How to Win Friends and Influence People") in a way. He shrewdly promoted projects other people could take credit for.

"He had immense control of the world he lived in. He had hubris. As printer, editor or diplomat in France, he was very successful — but he couldn't gauge popular opinion. He misunderstood the passions of the revolutionaries. He always thought the American Revolution could have been avoided."

Wood is unforgiving of Franklin for the shabby way in which he treated his wife, Deborah. "Their early letters were affectionate, but the later ones became perfunctory. He lost feeling for her as a wife. She had become his business agent in Philadelphia, while he lived in London. She was emotionally cut off.

"When she writes and asks him to come home, he doesn't respond to the letters. Franklin and Deborah spent the last 17 years of their marriage apart. He didn't need to divorce her. When he married her, he already had an illegitimate son, William, and Deborah was probably the only girl in Philadelphia who would take him."

Comments

You can be the first to comment on this story.

Image

Gordon Wood says he "stewed" about Franklin for years.

Related content
previousnext

Latest comments

Beck, Hannity, and Limbaugh get the audience they deserve and vice versa. ...

I find the rule,very discriminitory. I am not gay, I don't understand what...

Celtics crush Jazz

I understand we were outmanned last night. However, this effort was awful....

Tavernari has matured

My advice to Jonathan is shoot it when they pass it to you as soon as you...

Maybe they should try drafting a shooting guard who can shoot from outside ....

The sad thing about it is that there are actually people out there that are...

12 Utes return to Texas

Thank you TCU and BYU. Your wanting to beat Utah so bad has to drive you...

Celtics crush Jazz

Play fes and koufos. Look to the future. It looks like we will have two...

Letters: Obama 'too busy'

Oh come on. Obama's a horrible president, but I couldn't care less which...

"We had the best soccer of any place in the state. There's no disputing...

Advertisements
Advertisement