Franklin, Reconsidered

September 8, 2015 5:10 PM

‘‘I could as easily make a Collection for you of all the past Parings of my Nails,’’ Benjamin Franklin wrote to his sister Jane in 1767, after she asked him to send her all his old essays on politics. It was as if, in dashing off articles, he’d been sloughing off pages, like a snake shedding skin. Franklin liked to think of himself as a book: a man of letters, spine of bone, flesh of paper, blood of ink, his skin a cover of leather, stitched. When he wrote, he molted. He could be as sneaky as a snake, too, something to bear in mind when reading his autobiography, as sly an account as anything Franklin ever allowed himself the grave indiscretion of putting on paper.

Jill Lepore revisits the legacy of Benjamin Franklin, who in his time was “the most accomplished and famous American who had ever lived.”
posted by jenkinsEar (25 comments total)

"His whole life has been one continued insult to good manners and decency"

-John Adams
posted by clavdivs at 5:28 PM on September 8, 2015 [12 favorites]

The man had more game than Tiger Woods. We had to recall him from France due to his penchant for, well...he worked his way through the nobility.
posted by NoxAeternum at 5:39 PM on September 8, 2015 [2 favorites]

Really enjoyed this. Lepore is a good writer. I'm glad she mentioned the influence of Swift but wished she had made the connection to Cotton Mather. Franklin was, imo, both sacred and profane.
posted by CincyBlues at 5:54 PM on September 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

One wonders what Franklin would have made of the Internet. I suspect he would have been a terror on tumblr and snapchat.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:01 PM on September 8, 2015 [11 favorites]

A man of parts, by all accounts.
posted by jamjam at 6:09 PM on September 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

John Adams, player hater. I thought the story of how both men decided to improve their French language skills very illustratively: Adams from a book of French funeral orations and Franklin in the arms of his well placed French mistress. Here is an article from the American Scholar about Franklin and his time in Paris. The gist is that our information about Franklin in Paris is from John Adams.
posted by jadepearl at 6:09 PM on September 8, 2015 [2 favorites]

He liked farting.
posted by jonmc at 6:12 PM on September 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

The long chapter in his autobiography on how he became so humble is, in retrospect, one of the funniest things I've ever read.
posted by one_bean at 6:24 PM on September 8, 2015 [14 favorites]

This is very briefly mentioned in the piece, but made a big impression on me when I realized it: Franklin is remembered as an "inventor", which he was, but he was also among the front ranks of scientists of his time.

We might not remember his name if he was just a scientist; I think most of us can only name a handful of 18th-century scientists and he doesn't quite belong next to Euler and Lavoisier and Laplace.

But he was much more serious than the comical story about the kite and the lightning might suggest.
posted by grobstein at 6:34 PM on September 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

Does this mean a movie deal is taking shape?
posted by lazycomputerkids at 6:38 PM on September 8, 2015

I have an endless fascination for stories about stodgy old Victorian moralists turning all of the interesting people of the past into stodgy old Victorian moralists. Or, as I like to think of it, historiography.
posted by absalom at 6:46 PM on September 8, 2015 [5 favorites]

The American Colonies owe a great deal to Franklin for helping the revolution to succeed. He may well have contributed more to the victory than any other single man except George Washington.

While serving as ambassador to Paris, Franklin convinced the French King to commit the French Fleet to the job of interfering with RN operations near North America. As a result, when the British lost the battle of Yorktown, they weren't able to evacuate to sea. The entire force was captured.

That was the last major battle of the Revolution and it was such a shock in London that the government fell, and the new government (and the King) gave up on the idea of crushing the revolution. This led to the Treaty of Paris, in which the UK formally acknowledged American independence.

If the French Navy hadn't prevented the RN from evacuating the losers at Yorktown, and they had managed to escape, the war would have gone on, and might not have ended with an American victory.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:50 PM on September 8, 2015 [10 favorites]

If the French Navy hadn't prevented the RN from evacuating the losers at Yorktown, and they had managed to escape, the war would have gone on, and might not have ended with an American victory.

I can see any number of upsides in that scenario.
posted by IndigoJones at 7:46 PM on September 8, 2015

Yeah, but do you know what the coolest thing about Ben Franklin was...?
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 7:53 PM on September 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

Thoughts on Ben Franklin's appearance on the US$100 bill.
posted by mosk at 8:34 PM on September 8, 2015 [5 favorites]

absalom: I have an endless fascination for stories about stodgy old Victorian moralists turning all of the interesting people of the past into stodgy old Victorian moralists. Or, as I like to think of it, historiography.

And now we're turning Franklin into someone who wrote a fictionalized memoir. It's interesting to think what the narrative of our historical age will be, but I'm sure the vogue for fictionalized memoirs will fit into it somehow.
posted by Kattullus at 1:44 AM on September 9, 2015

Benjamin Franklin: The only President of the United States who was never President of the United States.
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:27 AM on September 9, 2015 [6 favorites]

I've been thinking more about the effects of Victorian moralists on the 20th and 21st Century reputation of historical figures. Because Jared Sparks emphasized the moralist side of Franklin, the backlash ended up cementing the idea that Franklin was a lech. I mean, as far as we can tell, he was. But he was also a moralist and a lot of other things. Most often when he's now depicted in media, his lecherousness is played up because that's what "our Franklin" is like.

Of course, the most damage done to a historical figure by Victorian moralists was that of the family of Lewis Carroll, who went to great lengths to erase all traces of his scandalous friendships with unmarried women, with the result that his current image is that he was a pedophile.

When you suppress aspects of a historical figure's life, you're just inviting others to guess at what's hidden, and generally people assume that if something is hidden, it must be because it cannot see the light of day. Good job, Victorian moralists.
posted by Kattullus at 4:27 AM on September 9, 2015 [6 favorites]

I loved it when Franklin made a couple of appearances on Sleepy Hollow, causing Ichabod no end of consternation.
posted by Kitteh at 6:45 AM on September 9, 2015

Sorry to quibble, but Franklin was not a Victorian. He was a Georgian. [/pedant]
posted by mosk at 8:49 AM on September 9, 2015

I believe the discussion is about how Victorian moralists whitewashed the history of the Founding Fathers, not that the FF were themselves Victorians.
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:19 AM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]

Ah, I can see I misread that -- sorry. Nevermind...
posted by mosk at 9:33 AM on September 9, 2015

It's an easy mistake to make. The success of his Longevity Treatments means that Franklin can be classified as Georgian and Victorian and many other eras (oh, the fun he and Byron had!), at least by those in the know.

Sorry, Ben, too many still alive to keep that secret.
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:03 PM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

" During the storm, Franklin rescued a drunken Dutchman who was drowning; in the man’s pocket, he found a copy of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, "

Wait, what? He saved a guy's life and then stole shit from the guy's pockets?! Dude, you can only do that if the guy DIES!
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:40 AM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

Well, as it says in Poor Richard's Almanack:
"Ye snoozeth; ye loseth."
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:39 AM on September 10, 2015 [3 favorites]