The first major biography of the former postmaster general since 1986, Brand s book is crammed with deeply researched information, yet makes for quick and engaging reading. The book begins, oddly enough, with zealot wacko Cotton Mather, infamous for his participation in the Salem witch trials, and offers a somewhat speculative though entertaining link with the preacher s influence on the Boston-based childhood of Franklin. Stifled by the restrictive mindset of early Boston, a town already laden with erudition and snobbery, a young Franklin embarked on a harrowing voyage which would deposit him almost penniless in the rough and tumble city of Philadelphia, where he took up work as an apprentice in one of the town s two print shops. Yes, the rest is history, but Brand offers a detailed and often humorous recounting of the Franklin s rise to national prominence and international fame. As I began the book I wondered as to the authenticity of much of the Franklin lore.
Brand supplies all the answers, some of which are surprising.
Like any truly good history book, The First American details not only the life of the ingenious and remarkable central character, but illustrates facets of daily life in the variety of cities Franklin inhabited during his life. For example, London in the mid 1700s was a smoke-clouded urban knot where the water was so polluted that the citizens relied chiefly on beer and liquor for liquid sustenance, and thus was a metropolis of almost perpetual drunkenness. And it was surprising to learn that at the dawning of American democracy the Penn family continued to attempt to maintain an almost feudal hold over Pennsylvania. The First American is strengthened by its illustration of Franklin s mindset as he made the transformation from a citizen of the Empire to an international spokesman for American independence. Widely respected and lauded on the world stage as the New World s preeminent thinker, writer and scientist Benjamin Franklin risked derision and scorn, not to mention incarceration, by boldly accepting the role of diplomat for a struggling and upstart collection of radicals.