Description:
An exploration of the mind of one of America's most beloved Founding Fathers and most brilliant minds, through the books he read and his social circles in the United States and Europe.
Arguably the most intellectual, creative, cosmopolitan, and curious of the Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin is the only top-tier Founder not to have served as president. Despite not becoming the Chief Executive, Franklin played an active role in American politics and served the aspiring and young United States in the key European capitals. His prodigious reading and appetite for learning are epic. As he did in works about Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, Kevin J. Hayes interprets the life and mind of Franklin through what he read.
Brief description: Kevin J. Hayes is professor emeritus of English at the University of Central Oklahoma. He is the author of numerous books on American literature, history, and culture, including George Washington: A Life in Books, which won the George Washington Book Prize; The Road to Monticello: The Life and Mind of Thomas Jefferson; and A Journey through American Literature. He lives in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio.