Ebook: Benjamin Franklin: the man who dared lightning

New York Times bestselling historian Thomas Fleming brings his extraordinary biographical talents to bear upon Benjamin Franklin, perhaps the least understood of America's revolutionary giants. For this reappraisal, Fleming concentrates on the mature Franklin, the man who lived nearly thirty years beyond the point where he ended his famous Autobiography. The poor boy, the miserly young printer, has become an decidedly more complex and cultured man. In scene after vivid scene, Fleming shows us how Franklin's unique blend of faith and courage, humor and wisdom presided over the birth of the American nation.

Interwoven in this political history is an incredibly moving, almost forgotten personal drama - the conflict between Franklin and his son William, the royal governor of New Jersey, the "thorough courtier," as Franklin called him. Year by year, we watch the two men drifting apart as the quarrel between England and America deepens - yet always reaching across the gulf with...