This Is Mr. America.(Benjamin Franklin biographies)(Critical Essay)

Benjamin Franklin, Walter Isaacson tells us at the beginning of his long (but never tedious) new biography, "is the founding father who winks at us." By that, Isaacson explains, he means Franklin is the most human--and most modern--of the men who forged the American republic. We admire Washington, Jefferson and Adams, but they remain creatures of the 18th century. The man we encounter in "Benjamin Franklin" (Simon & Schuster)--funny, pragmatic and self-aware--seems like one of us, or at least someone we'd like to be.

Unlike Washington's cherry tree, Franklin's kite was real. His experiments with electricity made him one of the great scientists of his day. He was a middle-class businessman whose success as a printer and a journalist allowed him to retire at 42--and he devoted the rest of his life to his country. He was the diplomat who persuaded the French to back the American Revolution and the author of the first great American autobiography. He was an excellent swimmer. There was almost nothing he couldn't do well, except write poetry.

But what truly distinguished Franklin was his knack of being great and human at the same time. He owned slaves as a younger man, but in his last years became an ...