Franklin of Philadelphia by Esmond Wright

148 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE lieve, and his essay on the means of locating and using them is a sound introduction to the subject. All historians of modern technol­ ogy would benefit by reading it. I cannot recommend his formula for publication of travelers’ accounts, however, because it ignores the necessity for adhering to a carefully established and fully stated editorial policy. Darwin H. Stapleton Dr. Stapleton is the director of the Rockefeller Archive Center. His Accounts ofEu­ ropean Science, Technology & Medicine Written by American Travelers Abroad, 1735—1860, in the Collections of the American Philosophical Society, was published in 1985. Franklin of Philadelphia. By Esmond Wright. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1986. Pp. xvii+404; il­ lustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $25.00. Esmond Wright is a distinguished British political historian who has long been intrigued by Benjamin Franklin. In 1968, Wright ed­ ited a compilation, Benjamin Franklin: A Profile, which was a prelude to the full-scale biography under review here. It is apparent that Wright intends his new work to supplant Carl Van Doren’s 1938 biog­ raphy of Franklin that for fifty years had held its position as the best study of the doctor’s life. Wright exhibits a command of the re­ cent scholarly literature on Franklin and has had the benefit of the publication of the definitive scholarly edition of Franklin’s papers at Yale, the Papers ofBenjamin Franklin, now numbering twenty-five vol­ umes. Has Wright, in fact, accomplished his objective of eclipsing Van Doren? The best answer may be similar to the statement Jefferson is re­ ported to have made when taking over from Franklin as American ambassador to France in the 1780s: I succeed him; I can not re­ place him. That is, Wright’s volume should be considered as a shorter, revised addendum to a classic study that still repays read­ ing. Wright is strongest on political history, especially British poli­ tics in the era of the American Revolution, and is able, therefore, to explain the political context of Franklin’s career better than most previous writers. It is, indeed, a fair appraisal to say that Franklin of Philadelphia is essentially a political biography, although the author at­ tempts to cover other aspects of Franklin’s life. Wright is at pains to explain Franklin’s “character,” to investigate and refute the strictures of Carlyle, Lawrence, Keats, Melville, Twain, and Hawthorne that he was a mean-spirited moneygrubber, the “father of all the Yankees,” or, in Charles Angoffs phrase, “of all the Kiwanians.” Wright believes these charges are unfair and ill in­ formed and presents Franklin in a far more attractive guise. He is, in short, an admirer of Franklin who is impatient with the hostility he has received from the literary establishment. What new insights will students of technology gain from reading TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 149 this biography? Very few, unfortunately. Only seventeen of its 360 pages are devoted to science and technology, and they treat these top­ ics in an anecdotal way, focusing on Franklin’s dallying with smoky chimneys and recounting familiar stories about controversies over pointed versus rounded lightning rods. The suggestion is even made that Franklin was interested in some aspects of science to in­ crease the profits of Poor Richard’s Almanack. No serious attempt is made to explain the sources of his technological creativity. For readers interested in a well-written, factually reliable account of Franklin’s life that incorporates the best recent scholarship on his politics and personality, this volume will be rewarding. Those seeking enlightenment about Franklin’s activities in science and tech­ nology will be obliged to look elsewhere. James H. Hutson Mr. Hutson is chief of the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress. His sup­ plement to Max Farrand’s Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 is published by Yale University Press. Science and Society in Early America: Essays in Honor of WhitfieldJ. Bell, Jr. Edited by Randolph S. Klein. Philadelphia: American Philo­ sophical Society, 1986. Pp. 426; illustrations, notes, index. $30.00. The history of medicine, not the history of technology, was Whitfield Bell’s main research interest, but his activities and

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