In his old age, Franklin suffered from many maladies, including gout, kidney stones, chronic skin disease and swollen joints. When he died at 84, the cause was a lung ailment. He left major bequests of money to the cities of Boston and Philadelphia, to provide for young journeyman mechanics to set themselves up in business.

Oddly, Franklin's death was greeted with much more adulation in France than it was in America. The French government decreed three days of national mourning, and Franklin was praised as "a philosopher who was able to conquer both thunderbolts and tyrants."

Wood's book not only makes for excellent reading, it is unquestionably a major contribution in the study both of Franklin and of the American Revolution. Its revisionist thesis, often at odds with that of Edmund Morgan's recent thoughtful study, is likely to be built upon as other scholars react to the new and provocative materials Wood has discovered.

Through it all, Franklin remains one of the greatest of all Americans.

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E-mail: dennis@desnews.com