The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin: A Book Review

Overview of Wood's Approach

In The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin, Gordon Wood (2004) demythifies the life of this Founding Father, showing how Franklin became the American icon he is remembered as today and how he came to support the ideas that would be embodied in the American Revolution.

The book is not a biography in the strict sense and is more interested in the development of Franklin's thinking over time. Still, it is divided into chronological sections that follow the course of Franklin's life — beginning with his career as a printer, then moving into Franklin's love for England and the British Empire up to the Stamp Act of 1765. Wood next develops the growing patriotism of Franklin in the lead-up to the Revolution, and his activities during the Revolution itself are characterized as diplomatic missions. The last chapter, titled "Becoming an American," addresses Franklin's reputation as it grew once the new nation was formed. In essence, all of the patriots of the time were Americanized in that they had been British subjects and were transformed along with the country when they won the war and created a new nation.

Franklin as British Loyalist

Franklin is depicted in this book not as the American patriot-from-the-first that people might imagine, but as a man who was far more loyal to England than that image suggests — one who came to accept the American cause only after considerable examination and reflection on the unfolding events of his era. He was Americanized because he was slowly convinced that the American cause was more just for the colonies than continued British rule.

Wood makes it clear that the choice was a difficult one for Franklin. He was loyal to England, and he would eventually become fiercely loyal to America. The break with one before the dedication to the other took a great deal of time as Franklin struggled with the transformation coming over him. His first sign of dissension with England came when he began to question the authority of Parliament over the American colonies. Franklin spent years in England and experienced considerable stress as his attitudes shifted and he felt less and less welcome there.

The Autobiography and Franklin's Public Image

Much of the adulation of Franklin derives from the publication of his autobiography, written some years before it was finally published. When the manuscript came into the hands of a man named Abel James, the latter wrote to Franklin — then in France — that the work "would be useful & entertaining not only to a few, but to millions" (p. 202). This is precisely what happened, and the book continues to inspire readers to this day. James also told Franklin that he knew of no other figure so capable of promoting certain virtues and reaching the young people of the time.

Franklin had entrusted his autobiography and other papers to his friend Joseph Galloway when he departed for France, but Galloway remained loyal to the British side and fled to England, leaving the papers behind — which is how Abel James came to acquire them. Other friends of like mind did much the same. Only Franklin, among this group, changed his views and adopted the American cause, in effect being Americanized.

Conclusion

The Franklin in this book is recognizable as the patriot and icon known to us today, but Wood also shows more facets of the man's character and offers greater understanding of the nature of the man, not the symbol. Wood shows some of the reasons why Franklin made the changes he did and how his shifts in thinking were received by his contemporaries, contributing finally to the more enduring image of Benjamin Franklin that persists to this day.

Reference

Wood, G. S. (2004). The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin. New York: Penguin Press.