Every American is intimately familiar with Benjamin Franklin, one of the seminal Founding Fathers and the first international American celebrity. Over 200 years after his death, Americans still hold out Franklin as an example of the American Dream, a self-made man whose varied interests brought about changes in science, printing, and, of course, politics.

Thankfully, the prodigious Franklin documented his own life and times with an autobiography that he never quite finished but nevertheless offers a unique look into the Revolutionary Era in American history, as well as the thoughts and feelings of one of the most important Americans who ever lived.