Benjamin Franklin, D.G. Hart
Benjamin Franklin, D.G. Hart
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Benjamin Franklin
Cultural Protestant (Spiritual Lives)

Author: D.G. Hart

Narrator: David Cochran Heath

Unabridged: 10 hr 1 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/28/2021


Synopsis

Benjamin Franklin grew up in a devout Protestant family with limited prospects for wealth and fame. By hard work, limitless curiosity, native intelligence, and luck (what he called "providence"), Franklin became one of Philadelphia's most prominent leaders, a world recognized scientist, and the United States' leading diplomat during the War for Independence.

Benjamin Franklin: Cultural Protestant follows Franklin's remarkable career through the lens of the trends and innovations that the Protestant Reformation started (both directly and indirectly) almost two centuries earlier. His work as a printer, civic reformer, institution builder, scientist, inventor, writer, self-help dispenser, politician, and statesmen was deeply rooted in the culture and outlook that Protestantism nurtured. Through its alternatives to medieval church and society, Protestants built societies and instilled habits of character and mind that allowed figures such as Franklin to build the life that he did. In this biography, D. G. Hart recognizes Franklin as a cultural or non-observant Protestant, someone who thought of himself as a Presbyterian, ordered his life as other Protestants did, sometimes went to worship services, read his Bible, and prayed, but could not go all the way and join a church.

About D.G. Hart

D. G. Hart is Distinguished Associate Professor of History at Hillsdale College. His publications include American Catholic: The Politics of Faith During the Cold War, Damning Words: The Life and Religious Times of H. L. Mencken, and Calvinism: A History.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jim on May 29, 2024

I'm making my way through the history of the American Revolution by reading one book about every founding father. So far I've read Chernow's books on Hamilton and Washington, and this one by HW Brands. Each book has shown me the same exact stories and events but told through different eyes. I'm getti......more

Goodreads review by bup on October 25, 2007

The best biography I've ever read. Franklin is so human I could walk into the next room and not be surprised to see him setting there. The biographer also makes a very compelling argument that Ben Franklin was the most indispensable figure in the American Revolutionary adventure. Or at least tied wit......more

Goodreads review by Donald on September 25, 2021

A detailed and masterful biography of one of the greatest men in modern history. He was a true model of a man in so many realms. The author was exhaustively thorough. Thus it is a long book but also a great story of how one man learned to preserve and succeed through a difficult life with such great......more

Goodreads review by Steve on August 20, 2019

[URL not allowed] H. W. Brands’ “The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin” was published in 2000 and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Brands is a professor of history and government at the University of Texas and a prolific author. He has written nearly three-d......more

Goodreads review by Joseph on August 26, 2020

Now that I've read the best, it's time to study the rest. Seriously though, folks, this book should have WON the Pulitzer back in 2001. The only book I've read and reviewed this past year that even comes close to this one is Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David Blight. This Franklin biogr......more