Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

Like Franklin, Isaacson emerged from the middle class into the cultural elite. Isaacson began his career in journalism and eventually became the managing editor of Time and the chairman of CNN. From 2003 to 2017, he led the Aspen Institute, which gathers diverse, nonpartisan thought leaders, and others to address the world’s problems with the goal of making a positive impact. It is just the type of organization that Franklin would have championed. What is more, Isaacson has myriad intellectual interests given the subjects of his biographies, which include technological guru and businessman Steve Jobs and scientist Albert Einstein. The wide spectrum of his interests surely made Isaacson warm to the various interests of Franklin.

Although Isaacson is Harvard-educated, he entered academia without the usually requisite Ph.D. Isaacson is a professor of history at Tulane University. Perhaps Franklin’s self-education and pragmatism appealed to him. His biographies, including this one, are well researched and contribute to the academic literature. The repeated emphasis on Franklin’s middle-class outlook and sympathy for democracy is, however, somewhat blind to Franklin’s secure position in the elite of his time. He was by Isaacson’s admission a media tycoon and his comment at the close of the Constitutional Convention about the nature of the government, “a republic, madame, if you can keep it” (459) can be interpreted as somewhat skeptical of popular government.