Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Benjamin Franklin: A Short Biography
    Benjamin Franklin: A Short Biography
    Benjamin Franklin: A Short Biography
    Ebook66 pages37 minutes

    Benjamin Franklin: A Short Biography

    By Doug West

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Benjamin Franklin was first and foremost a public servant, but he was also a prolific writer, humorist, musician, inventor, businessman, and scientist. He was always working to improve civic society. Among many other things, he organized the first volunteer fire department and established the first lending library in America. In the 18th century, he was celebrated as a scientist, inventor, and innovator who somehow emerged from the obscurity of his modest birth to prominence, which he achieved despite a lack of formal education. You’ve hear the story of Benjamin Franklin flying a kite in a thunderstorm storm to prove lighting was a form of electricity – the story is true and it turned out his discovery propelled him to the level of an international scientist. He was a simple American, but his scientific discoveries in regards to electricity surpassed the achievements of more prominent and established European scientists of his time. His work as a diplomat to France during the American Revolutionary War was key to the colonists breaking free from British control. He helped write the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. It has been said that he was the only American President that wasn’t accurately a President.
    How could one man accomplish so much in just one lifetime? Buy the book “Benjamin Franklin – A Short Biography” and find out!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDoug West
    Release dateAug 17, 2015
    ISBN9781311737663
    Benjamin Franklin: A Short Biography
    Author

    Doug West

    Doug West is a retired engineer, small business owner, and an experienced non-fiction writer with several books to his credit. His writing interests are general, with expertise in science, history, biographies, numismatics, and “How to” topics. Doug has a B.S. in Physics from the Missouri School of Science and Technology and a Ph.D. in General Engineering from Oklahoma State University. He lives with his wife and little dog “Millie” near Kansas City, Missouri.

    Read more from Doug West

    Related to Benjamin Franklin

    Related ebooks

    Political Biographies For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      John Brown and His Bible

      Jun 11, 2022

      John Brown and His Bible
      12 min read

    • Article

      John Brown and His Bible

      Jun 11, 2022

      John Brown and His Bible
      12 min read

    • Article

      'Young Benjamin Franklin' Reintroduces An Icon, Seeing Him As Neither Saint Nor Sage

      Oct 3, 2018

      Historian Nick Bunker has done a large amount of original research, tracing Franklin more minutely than any previous general biographer.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Quaker Awakening

      Mar 9, 2021

      Quaker Awakening
      12 min read

    • Article

      ‘Call yourself English?’

      Aug 21, 2019

      ‘Call yourself English?’
      19 min read

    • Article

      Rudyard Kipling Loved Vermont. Then He Had To Leave It.

      Jul 15, 2019

      Christopher Benfey’s ‘If’ takes a closer look at the writer’s time in America – a key creative period when he wrote ‘The Jungle Book.’

      3 min read

    • Article

      Psyched Out

      Dec 14, 2021

      Psyched Out
      4 min read

    • Article

      Churchill’s Mommie Dearest

      Jun 2, 2021

      Jennie Churchill, Winston’s American mother, died shockingly prematurely 100 years ago this month, on 29th June 1921, after a fall downstairs. She was 67 and in the prime of life, newly married to a man 20 years younger and had finally found a way of

      5 min read

    • Article

      Who Was Bc Franklin?

      Jun 17, 2021

      Who Was Bc Franklin?
      1 min read

    • Article

      True Believer

      Mar 26, 2019

      True Believer
      5 min read

    • Article

      How Jefferson’s ‘Pursuit Of Happiness’ Phrase Came To Be

      Jul 13, 2023

      From the time they are schoolchildren, Americans learn what happened after Thomas Jefferson asserted a right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 177

      3 min read

    • Article

      Thomas Pynchon Unmasked

      Jan 7, 2020

      Thomas Pynchon Unmasked
      9 min read

    • Article

      Trapped Between Two Worlds: The Life of John Morris

      Apr 4, 2022

      There is a (now lost) picture of me as an infant in 1952 on my grandfather’s knee, when he was about to turn 90. Even as a teenager, I was thinking, wow, the life this guy lived. The things he lived through and witnessed, and the way his day-to-day l

      11 min read

    • Article

      Samuel Johnson’s Defining Moments

      Feb 17, 2022

      Samuel Johnson was a published author, poet, essayist and biographer by the 1740s, but his career had not taken off or made him money. Certainly the reputation he holds today as a central literary figure of the 18th century, famed for his control of

      3 min read

    • Article

      “They Decided That God Must Be Leading Them To North America”

      Dec 27, 2019

      Launched in 1620, the Mayflower voyage – which carried the first English Puritans to North America – had a long gestation period in England. Stephen Tomkins’ new book explores the Protestant separatist movement that eventually culminated in the journ

      7 min read

    • Article

      The Man Behind The National Anthem Paid Little Attention To It

      Jul 4, 2017

      Francis Scott Key is most famous for writing the "Star Spangled Banner." But after he penned the now-famous lyrics, he hardly mentioned them.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Passing Fancy

      Mar 26, 2019

      Passing Fancy
      12 min read

    • Article

      Interview Nathaniel Philbrick History Ashore and Afloat

      Jan 1, 2019

      Nathaniel Philbrick is the celebrated author of several nonfiction books about the American experience, notably military and maritime history. A number of his books have been New York Times best sellers, including In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Strange Invention Of Late Antiquity

      Jul 26, 2023

      What makes a good historian? A new book, Journeys of the Mind, by one of the best of the past 50 years, Peter Brown, promises some answers. Brown is the pioneer of a whole way of looking at a historical period, ‘late antiquity’, between the fall of R

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Sage of Narnia

      Nov 15, 2023

      The Sage of Narnia
      3 min read

    • Article

      Kwame Anthony Appiah

      Mar 9, 2021

      Kwame Anthony Appiah
      32 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Benjamin Franklin

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Benjamin Franklin - Doug West

      Benjamin Franklin – A Short Biography

      By Doug West, Ph.D.

      Benjamin Franklin – A Short Biography

      Copyright © 2015 Doug West

      All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author. Reviewers may quote brief passages in reviews.

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Preface

      Introduction

      Chapter 1 – Early Years

      Chapter 2 – Personal Development and Employment in Publishing

      Chapter 3 – Early Adventures in Pennsylvania and London

      Chapter 4 – Printer, Newspaperman, Entrepreneur

      Chapter 5 – Poor Richard’s Almanac

      Chapter 6 – The Scientist and Inventor

      Chapter 7 - The American Revolution

      Chapter 8 - Final Years

      Chapter 9 – The Legacy of Benjamin Franklin

      Credits and Acknowledgments

      Selected Bibliography

      About the Author

      Additional Books by Doug West

      Preface

      Welcome to the book Benjamin Franklin- A Short Biography. This book is part of the 30 Minute Book Series and, as the name of the series implies, if you are an average reader this book will take around 30 minutes to read or a little longer to listen to in audio format. Since this book is not meant to be an all-encompassing thick biography on the Benjamin Franklin, you may want to know more about this fascinating man. To help you with this there are several good references at the end of this book. Thank you for purchasing this book and I hope you enjoy your time with Benjamin Franklin.

      Doug West

      August 2015

      Introduction

      Boston was part of a region then known as the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which was one of the original communities formed by 1,000 English settlers—Puritan refugees who settled in the New World in 1630. Aside from Boston, these Puritans also established the communities of Lynn, Watertown, Medford, Charlestown, Roxbury, and Dorchester. The population of 20,000 inhabitants was governed by leaders influenced by Puritan doctrine. At that time, there was intolerance of Baptist, Quaker, and Anglican beliefs, which led to conflicts and riots, such as one that assailed the city on Christmas Day in the year of

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1