Who recommended Benjamin Franklin?

16 people have recommended Benjamin Franklin in the interviews, articles and reading lists we track, including Tim Ferriss, Paul Graham, Elon Musk and Ray Dalio. Each name links to their full reading list.

Is Benjamin Franklin worth reading?

16 people we track recommend it. It is best for: A product manager inside a large tech company who’s curious how Franklin balanced invention, politics, and self-branding in a time before ‘personal brand’ was a concept, and wants a deep, warts-and-all biography rather than a motivational memoir.; A middle-school history teacher planning a class trip to Philadelphia who wants to bring the founding era to life by understanding one key figure’s full story, from printing press to Constitution Hall.; A founder of a small marketing agency who needs to build a network from scratch and wants to see how Franklin used his printing business and civic projects to become a trusted public figure, without the formulaic advice of modern business books.. It may not suit: You’ll likely put it down during extended diplomatic passages if you’re mainly here for the inventions and the kite experiment.; If you want a lean, fast-paced story, the sheer volume of detail and political back-and-forth will lose you early—this is a doorstop, not a brief intro.; You might bounce off Isaacson’s evenhanded, sometimes admiring tone if you’re expecting a more critical look at Franklin’s neglect of his wife or his shifting stance on slavery..

What books are like Benjamin Franklin?

Readers of Benjamin Franklin also turn to The Hard Thing About Hard Things, A Guide to the Good Life and The Gift of Fear, based on the lists and recommenders these books share.

Benjamin Franklin: Recommended by 16 People

Name: Benjamin Franklin
Author: Walter Isaacson
ISBN: 9780743258074

During his 84-year life Benjamin Franklin was America's best scientist, inventor, publisher, business strategist, diplomat, and writer. He was also one of its most practical political thinkers. America's first great publicist, he carefully crafted his own persona, portrayed it in public and polished it for posterity. In this riveting new biography Walter Isaacson provides readers with a full portrait of Franklin's public and private life - his loyal but neglected wife, his bastard son with whom he broke over going to war with England, his endless replacement families and his many amorous, but probably unconsummated, liaisons. But this is not just a biography of Benjamin Franklin but rather…