| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.4

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 243 words from this article are provided below; about 491 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Jerry Weinberger. Benjamin Franklin Unmasked: On the Unity of His Moral, Religious, and Political Thought. (American Political Thought.) Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. 2005. Pp. xvi, 336. $34.95.

Historians may have mixed feelings after reading Jerry Weinberger's book. A highly versatile and accomplished person, Benjamin Franklin had a long and colorful life, not to mention that the self-portrait in the several hundred editions of his Autobiography (1791) has for the last two centuries obscured his historical identity. Reacting to a lovable image of a quintessentially self-made man, the effort to unmask him began at least more than a century ago when Paul Leicester Ford wrote The Many-Sided Franklin (1899). Since then the search for the "true," the "real," the "not-so-simple," the "elusive," the "complicated," the "hidden," and the "devious" Franklin has consumed the energies of not a few scholars and popular writers. Weinberger joined this crusade from a different angle. Contrary to those who took Franklin's humor at face value, Weinberger believed that some of his subject's most serious thought could be found in those seemingly not so serious writings. Indeed, the more hilarious Franklin's comic essays were, the deeper and more profound his philosophy might turn out to be, according to Weinberger. Thus, his quest for the "true" and "real" Franklin was based not on any new evidence that he discovered but on his reinterpretation of several commonly known pieces by Franklin.

. . .

There are about 491 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.