Reviews
Those interested in the history of reading, early America, intellectual history, and Franklin himself would enjoy and profit from this engaging book.
This very helpful volume provides answers for those seeking information about the details in the life and actions of this brilliant individual.
Learned, wise, and gracefully written. Anderson thoughtfully addresses the complexity of Franklin's rhetorical strategy. And of course in another way the book is a history of Franklin's reading and moral and intellectual development, as well as a study of the transatlantic book trade and cultural transmission of ideas. It is all so richly suggestive it is hard to know what to single out.