|
|
|
Book Review
Canada and the United States
| Gordon S. Wood. The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin. Paperback edition. New York: Penguin. 2004. Pp. xvi, 299. $16.00.
|
| The three hundredth anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's birthday, on January 17, 2006, will evoke much celebration, including books, articles, and exhibitions devoted to his life. Gordon S. Wood's book should be a part of such celebration, for it is a worthy effort, and it invites further study of Franklin and his time. |
1
|
|
In the preface, Wood suggests that he is offering a Franklin "who is different in important ways from the Franklin of our inherited common understanding" (p. ix). The historic Franklin, he says, "elude(s) us," in favor of a simpler understanding apparently developed in the early nineteenth century of a man whose main concerns revolved around "the getting of money" (p. 9). Franklin, Wood argues, echoing an interpretation Carl Becker offered in 1931, was "never very revealing of himself. He always seems to be holding something back—he is reticent, detached, not wholly committed" (p. 13). |
2
|
|
The book Wood has written is intended to wipe away the obscurity in our understanding, to correct the distorted images we have carried around about Franklin. He acknowledges other scholars' efforts and he clearly respects them; he appreciates especially the modern edition of Franklin's papers now approaching forty volumes; but his conviction remains that despite this outpouring "we still do not fully know the man" (p. 13). |
3
|
|
To characterize Wood's method of presenting his Franklin as the setting up of a straw man would probably be unfair. But given all that has been written about him by distinguished scholars and given the modern edition of his papers with its thorough annotation, it is difficult to see just what it is that "elude(s)" us. Of course, aspects of Franklin's life remain unclear, especially the reasons for his actions in several events, but we do know, thanks to a flood of research and publication, an enormous amount. And in any case, is Franklin so different from other historical actors? Parts of the lives of virtually all such figures surely remain obscure. |
4
|
|
Wood's method of recovering the "historic" Franklin, as distinguished from the myth apparently created in the nineteenth century, is to look at him in five broad contexts. Franklin's becoming a gentleman is the first, followed by his becoming an imperialist, a patriot, a diplomat, and finally an American. Each of these aspects of his life receives a chapter, and each chapter is broken into a variety of subcategories, some not clearly related to others. The book almost inevitably takes on a fragmentary character and in many places resembles conventional biography. |
5
|
|
The first chapter may be the best because Wood has a fresh conception of gentility. A poor boy, Franklin earned his way into gentility by hard work and eventually by giving up work for money altogether. Colonial society's chief division, Wood says, was between gentlemen and commoners. Gentlemen did not have to earn their incomes; they had money, and Franklin did not enter their ranks until he retired, well-fixed, at age forty-two. As a young man he was of the middling sort, a printer and small businessman, a status that saw him amass more wealth than most of the gentry, though he was not yet of their number because he followed a trade. Wood's argument about gentility is interesting but not completely convincing, although it yields fascinating perspectives in this chapter and the next on Franklin's imperialism. |
. . . |
There are about 575 more words in this article.
Please log in (or, if you are not yet an
authorized user, please go to the
User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
|
