Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

By: Walter Isaacson

Narrated by: Nelson Runger

In this authoritative and engrossing full-scale biography, Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Einstein and Steve Jobs, shows how the most fascinating of America's founders helped define our national character.

Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us, the one who seems made of flesh rather than marble. In a sweeping narrative that follows Franklin’s life from Boston to Philadelphia to London and Paris and back, Walter Isaacson chronicles the adventures of the runaway apprentice who became, over the course of his eighty-four-year life, America’s best writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat, and business strategist, as well as one of its most practical and ingenious political leaders. He explores the wit behind Poor Richard’s Almanac and the wisdom behind the Declaration of Independence, the new nation’s alliance with France, the treaty that ended the Revolution, and the compromises that created a near-perfect Constitution.

In this colorful and intimate narrative, Isaacson provides the full sweep of Franklin’s amazing life, showing how he helped to forge the American national identity and why he has a particular resonance in the twenty-first century.

Great book, good enough reading, but poor sound editing

Loved the book! Walter Isaacson is thorough and balanced. Great history lesson as Benjamin Franklin was a big player in a the American Revolution.

The reader was good, most voices done well, but his Ben Franklin voice is annoying through the whole book. The sound editing is not good and you often hear the reader swallowing and other saliva noises. After 24 hours of these noises, you start to get annoyed.

The Most Fascinating of Our Founding Fathers

Where does Benjamin Franklin: An American Life rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

As a biography, this is one of the better ones I've read

What did you like best about this story?

The inclusion of many of B Franklin's writings and quotations as opposed to just telling his story really gives the reader a better window into his thoughts and viewpoints.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

The narrator was one of the poorest of the dozens of audible books I've experienced. He made nearly continuous sounds that distracted me from the story. It wasn't clearing his throat or other loud noises but rather small sounds during pauses that I haven't experienced with other narrators. I would say that when I was in an active environment, like running and listening, they didn't bother me. But in a quite environment they were noticeable, constant and distracting.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I was surprised to find out both how amiable and agreeable Benjamin Franklin was with his many peers and historical contacts and yet so cold and uncompromising with his own family.

Tough to listen to this wonderful story

Too much smacking of the lips and wetting the mouth and taking odd breaths during the reading. Need to turn the recording off and have some water.

Mostly excellent

Very comprehensive but at times repetitive. Author used same material and/or made same conclusions repeatedly. That said, this is an exhaustive work of highest scholarship.

An excellent journey

A great book with insight into all aspects of Benjamin Franklin's life. I was worried the book would be dull, it was not.