The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

This autobiography is one of the best books I have read in a while. It blends a great record of an amazing life into a wonderful self help book. Taking the contents of this book…at face value will make this a great help to people who desire to become better people based on good moral and working values.

This book written by Benjamin Franklin is written as words of advice to his son whom he hoped would see the benefit of some choices he could make and become the type of person he could be proud of and his father (who was writing it) could be proud of.

The only really unfortunate thing about the book is that it didn’t really get a bit more of Franklin’s focused attention. Almost everything he touched or was involved with in his life turned out wonderfully well. It is understandable though that while he was involved in the formation of the United States major documents of importance he didn’t have time to lecture his son in this form (especially because at that time he was estranged from his son).

The biggest disappointment is that the biography doesn’t include more about his later years and his personal perspective on some the involvement he had with major historical events, and relationships he had cultivated.

The book has a great prose, isn’t horribly preachy especially in a nice self deprecating way and goes by much too quickly.

Overall this is a great self help book, and includes many great maxims and morals for life in general. If you want an in depth overview and perspective on the person that Benjamin Franklin was definitely read Walter Isaacson’s biography on him Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, which is an amazing look into all we know about him.

This book gets 5 out of 5 Stars