Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

Isaacson argues that Franklin was a man of the Enlightenment. The term refers to a 17th- and 18th-century philosophical movement that emphasized reason and individualism over superstition and traditional hierarchies. Philosophers in that tradition include John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

The Great Awakening was a religious revival between the 1720s and 1740s. While Franklin did not adhere to its underlying theology, which valued faith over reason, and he rejected its condemnation of worldliness, he supported its challenge to deferential attitudes toward the clergy. Isaacson explains how Franklin benefitted financially from printing the sermons of one preacher whom the elite did not appreciate.

In relation to foreign policy, idealism considers values and principles in making choices. Isaacson argues that Franklin used both idealism and realism in persuading the French to become an American ally during the Revolutionary War. He invoked idealism to win over the French people, citing the new country’s values and printing copies of the Declaration of Independence and other inspiring documents.

Junto was the name for the Leather Apron Club formed by Franklin in 1727. Isaacson notes that the Junto combined civic and social life and benefitted business. It started with 12 members, all young workingmen, and became a “launching pad” (59) for Franklin’s civic projects as well as a place for intellectual discussions. It serves as an example of Franklin’s tendency to build social capital.

Pennsylvania was a proprietary colony, meaning that it was governed by a family, the Penns, that owned most of the unsettled land (155). Given the unwillingness of the proprietors to pay taxes and other abuses of power, Franklin sought unsuccessfully to have the status of Pennsylvania changed to that of a royal colony.

As an approach to foreign policy, realism considers only national interests. Franklin relied upon a combination of realism, appealing to French interests in weakening Great Britain, and idealism in persuading the French to ally with the Americans in the Revolutionary War.