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Front Matter Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87134-1 - The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Franklin Edited by Carla Mulford Frontmatter More information the cambridge companion to benjamin franklin Comprehensive and accessible, this Companion addresses several well-known themes in the study of Franklin and his writings, while also showing Franklin in conversation with his British and European counterparts in science, philosophy, and social theory. Specially commissioned chapters, written by scholars well known in their respective fields, examine Franklin’s writings and his life with a new sophistication, placing Franklin in his cultural milieu while revealing the complexities of his intellectual, literary, social, and political views. Individual chapters take up several traditional topics, such as Franklin and the American Dream, Franklin and capitalism, and Franklin’s views of American national character. Other chapters delve into Franklin’s library and his philosophical views on morality, religion, science, and the Enlightenment and explore his continuing influence in American culture. This Companion will be essential reading for students and scholars of American literature, history, and culture. © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87134-1 - The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Franklin Edited by Carla Mulford Frontmatter More information cambridge companions to american studies This series of Companions to key figures in American history and culture is aimed at students of American studies, history, and literature. Each volume features newly commissioned essays by experts in the field, with a chronology and guide to further reading. Volumes published: The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Franklin edited by Carla Mulford The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Jefferson edited by Frank Shuffelton The Cambridge Companion to W. E. B. Du Bois edited by Shamoon Zamir Volumes in preparation: The Cambridge Companion to Bob Dylan edited by Kevin Dettmar The Cambridge Companion to Frederick Douglass edited by Maurice Lee The Cambridge Companion to Malcolm X edited by Robert Terrill © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87134-1 - The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Franklin Edited by Carla Mulford Frontmatter More information THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO BENJAMIN FRANKLIN EDITED BY CARLA MULFORD © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87134-1 - The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Franklin Edited by Carla Mulford Frontmatter More information cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao˜ Paulo, Delhi Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 8ru,UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521691864 c Cambridge University Press 2008 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2008 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data The Cambridge companion to Benjamin Franklin / edited by Carla Mulford. p. cm. – (Cambridge companions to American studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-521-87134-1 (hardback) 1. Franklin, Benjamin, 1706–1790 – Political and social views. 2. Franklin, Benjamin, 1706–1790 – Knowledge and learning. 3. Franklin, Benjamin, 1706–1790 – Influence. 4. Statesmen – United States – Biography. 5. Scientists – United States – Biography. 6. United States – Intellectual life – 18th century. I. Mulford, Carla, 1955– II. Title: Companion to Benjamin Franklin. III. Series. e302.6.f8c218 2008 973.3092 –dc22 [b] 2008033470 isbn 978-0-521-87134-1 hardback isbn 978-0-521-69186-4 paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87134-1 - The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Franklin Edited by Carla Mulford Frontmatter More information CONTENTS List of illustrations page vii Notes on contributors viii Acknowledgments xii Method of citation xiii Chronology of Franklin’s life xiv Compiled by rochelle raineri zuck Introduction 1 carla mulford 1. Benjamin Franklin’s library 11 kevin j. hayes 2. The Art of Virtue 24 douglas anderson 3. Franklin’s satiric vein 37 paul e. kerry 4. Franklin in the republic of letters 50 david s. shields 5. Benjamin Franklin’s natural philosophy 63 joyce e. chaplin 6. Franklin and the Enlightenment 77 frank kelleter 7. Franklin and the question of religion 91 kerry walters v © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87134-1 - The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Franklin Edited by Carla Mulford Frontmatter More information contents 8. The pragmatist in Franklin 104 james campbell 9. Franklin on national character and the Great Seal of the United States 117 lester c. olson 10. Protestant ethic or conspicuous consumption? Benjamin Franklin and the Gilded Age 132 wilson j. moses 11. Benjamin Franklin and the American Dream 145 nian-sheng huang and carla mulford 12. Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography, then and now 159 stephen carl arch Further reading 172 Index 177 vi © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87134-1 - The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Franklin Edited by Carla Mulford Frontmatter More information ILLUSTRATIONS 1. The Great Seal of the United States, as engraved on the title page, Constitutions des Treize Etats-Unis de l’Amerique´ [translated by Louis-Alexandre, duc de la Rochefoucault], (Paris and Philadelphia: [Philippe-Denis] Pierres, 1783). Photograph courtesy of the American Philosophical Society. page 121 2. The Great Seal of the United States, as engraved on the title page of The Definitive Treaty between Great Britain, and the United States of America, Signed at Paris, the 3d day of September 1783 ([Passy: Press of Benjamin Franklin], 1783). Photograph courtesy of the American Philosophical Society. 122 vii © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87134-1 - The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Franklin Edited by Carla Mulford Frontmatter More information CONTRIBUTORS douglas anderson is Sterling-Goodman Professor of English at the Univer- sity of Georgia. He is the author of A House Undivided: Domesticity and Com- munity in American Literature (1990), The Radical Enlightenments of Benjamin Franklin (1997), and William Bradford’s Books: Of Plimmoth Plantation And The Printed Word (2003), as well as twenty articles and book chapters on major fig- ures in English and American literature from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries. stephen carl arch is Professor of English and Chair of the Department of English at Michigan State University. He is the author of two book-length stud- ies, Authorizing the Past: The Rhetoric of History in Seventeenth-Century New England (1994)andAfter Franklin: The Emergence of Autobiography in Post- Revolutionary America, 1780–1830 (2001), as well as numerous articles on early American literature. He has edited Ethan Allen’s Narrative of Col. Ethan Allen’s Captivity for classroom use, and is currently editing two James Fenimore Cooper novels for The Writings of James Fenimore Cooper series. He is also writing a book tentatively titled Modes of Excess in the Age of Jackson and focusing on rhetorical and social violence in the 1830s in the United States. james campbell was educated at Temple University and SUNY/Stony Brook and is currently Distinguished University Professor at the University of Toledo. He has been a Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Innsbruck (1990–91), and the University of Munich (2003–04). He is editor of Selected Writings of James Hayden Tufts (1992) and co-editor of a collection of forthcoming essays, Expe- rience as Philosophy: On the Work of John J. McDermott. He has published The Community Reconstructs: The Meaning of Pragmatic Social Thought (1992), Understanding John Dewey: Nature and Cooperative Intelligence (1995), Recov- ering Benjamin Franklin: An Exploration of a Life of Science and Service (1999), and A Thoughtful Profession: The Early Years of the American Philosophical Association (2006). viii © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87134-1 - The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Franklin Edited by Carla Mulford Frontmatter More information notes on contributors joyce e. chaplin is James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History at Harvard University. She received her BA from Northwestern University and her MA and PhD from the Johns Hopkins University, and has taught at Vanderbilt University, the University of Leeds, and the University of Sydney, in addition to Harvard. She is the author of An Anxious Pursuit: Agricultural Innovation and Modernity in the Lower South, 1730–1815 (1993), Subject Matter: Technology, the Body, and Science on the Anglo-American Frontier, 1500–1670
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