Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-cjp7w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-04T06:32:14.083Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography and the Education of America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Steven Forde
Steven Forde*
Affiliation:
University of North Texas
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Franklin's Autobiography was written in part to provide a model for the emerging democratic individual and democratic culture of America. Franklin's teaching in the work has been subject to severe criticisms from the beginning, though it has had many defenders, too. Neither friend nor foe, however, has taken a sustained look at the Autobiography itself to explore its teaching in detail. I look at Franklin's presentation of the relationship of wealth and virtue, his utilitarianism, and his vision of democratic society and find a subtle and robust ideal deftly calculated to educate and elevate American culture.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 86 , Issue 2 , June 1992 , pp. 357 - 368
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1992 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, John. 1955. “John Adams.” In Benjamin Franklin and the American Character, ed. Sanford, Charles L.. Boston: Heath.Google Scholar
Angoff, Charles. 1955. “Benjamin Franklin.” In Benjamin Franklin and the American Character, ed. Sanford, Charles L.. Boston: Heath.Google Scholar
Bailyn, Bernard. 1967. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Belknap/Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Becker, Carl L. 1931. “Benjamin Franklin.” In Dictionary of American Biography, ed. Johnson, Allen and Malone, Dumas. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.Google Scholar
Buxbaum, Melvin H., ed. 1987. Critical Essays on Benjamin Franklin. Boston: Hall.Google Scholar
Dawson, Hugh J. 1977/1978. “Franklin's Memoirs in 1784: The Design of the Autobiography, Parts I and II.” Early American Literature 12:286–93.Google Scholar
Farrand, Max, ed. 1937. The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787. 4 vols. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Franklin, Benjamin. 1962. Benjamin Franklin on Education. Ed. Best, John Hardin. New York: Columbia University Teachers College.Google Scholar
Franklin, Benjamin. 1964. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Ed. Labaree, Leonard W., Ketcham, Ralph L., Boatfield, Helen C., and Fineman, Helene H.. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Franklin, Benjamin. [1907] 1970. The Writings of Benjamin Franklin. Ed. Smyth, Albert Henry. 10 vols. Reprint. New York: Haskell House.Google Scholar
Griswold, A. Whitney. 1965. “Two Puritans on Prosperity.” In Benjamin Franklin and the American Character, ed. Sanford, Charles L.. Boston: Heath.Google Scholar
James, William. 1981. Pragmatism. Ed. Kuklick, Bruce. Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Ki, Kimura. 1987. “Franklin and the Imperial Court.” In Critical Essays on Benjamin Franklin, ed. Buxbaum, Melvin H.. Boston: Hall.Google Scholar
Lawrence, D. H. 1964. Studies in Classic American Literature. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Lawrence, D. H. 1987. “Benjamin Franklin.” In Critical Essays on Benjamin Franklin, ed. Buxbaum, Melvin H.. Boston: Hall.Google Scholar
Lemay, J. A. Leo. 1982. “Poe's ‘The Business Man’: Its Contexts and Satire of Franklin's Autobiography .” Poe Studies 15:29–37.10.1111/j.1754-6095.1982.tb00074.xGoogle Scholar
Lerner, Ralph. 1987. The Thinking Revolutionary: Principle and Practice in the New Republic. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
MacDonald, Forrest. 1985. Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Intellectual Origins of the Constitution. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, Alisdair. 1984. After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Miles, Richard D. 1957. “The American Image of Benjamin Franklin.” American Quarterly 9:117–43.10.2307/2710628Google Scholar
Miroff, Bruce. 1986. “John Adams: Merit, Fame, and Political Leadership.” Journal of Politics 48:116–32.10.2307/2130928Google Scholar
Morgan, Edmund S. 1991. “Secrets of Benjamin Franklin.” New York Review of Books 38(3):41–46.Google Scholar
Pangle, Thomas. 1988. The Spirit of Modern Republicanism: The Moral Vision of the American Founders and the Philosophy of Locke. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Rossiter, Clinton. 1952. “The Political Theory of Benjamin Franklin.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 76:259–93.Google Scholar
Sanford, Charles L. 1965. “An American's Pilgrim's Progress.” In Benjamin Franklin and the American Character, ed. Sanford, Charles L.. Boston: Heath.Google Scholar
Sayre, Robert Freeman. 1963. “The Worldly Franklin and the Provincial Critics.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language 4:512–24.Google Scholar
Schneider, Herbert W. 1955. “Ungodly Puritans.” In Benjamin Franklin and the American Character, ed. Sanford, Charles L.. Boston: Heath.Google Scholar
Seavey, Ormond. 1988. Becoming Benjamin Franklin: The Auto-biography and the Life. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Stourzh, Gerald. 1953. “Reason and Power in Benjamin Franklin's Political Thought.” American Political Science Review 47:1092–1115.10.2307/1951127Google Scholar
Stourzh, Gerald. 1954. Benjamin Franklin and American Foreign Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Tocqueville, Alexis de. 1969. Democracy in America. Ed. Mayer, J. P.. Trans. Lawrence, George. Garden City: Doubleday Anchor.Google Scholar
Van Doren, Carl. [1936] 1964. Benjamin Franklin. Reprint. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1958. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Trans. Parsons, Talcott. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.Google Scholar
Willcox, William B. 1987. “Franklin's Last Years in England: The Making of a Rebel.” In Critical Essays on Benjamin Franklin, ed. Buxbaum, Melvin H.. Boston: Hall.Google Scholar
Xenophon, . 1968. Memorabilia and Oeconomicus, Symposium and Apology. Trans, of Memorabilia by Marchant, E. C.. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.