Synopses & Reviews
Benjamin Franklin is one of the best known and least understood figures in the history of eighteenth-century political thought. Alan Houston clarifies our understanding of his thought by making available a representative selection of his most important political writings. The entire text of the Autobiography is included alongside letters, essays, pamphlets, and manuscript notes that cover political economy, moral psychology, and religious belief and practice, among other topics.
Synopsis
A full and representative selection of Benjamin Franklin's most important political writings.
Synopsis
Benjamin Franklin is one of the best known and most widely admired figures in American history, yet also one of the least understood. In this major new Cambridge Text, Alan Houston seeks to bring clarity to our understanding of Franklin's thought by making available, for the first time in two generations, a full and representative selection of his most important political writings. The entire text of the Autobiography is included alongside letters, essays, pamphlets, and manuscript notes that treat political economy, moral psychology, and religious belief and practice amongst others.
About the Author
One of the greatest figures in American history.Alan Houston teaches in the department of political science at the University of California, San Diego.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements; Introduction; Chronology; Bibliographical note; Biographical guide; A note on the texts; 1. The autobiography - Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four; 2. Plan of conduct (1726); 3. The nature and necessity of a paper currency (1729); 4. Apology for printers (1731); 5. Rules for a club formerly established at Philadelphia (1732); 6. Dialogue between two Presbyterians (1735); 7. Letter to Josiah and Abiah Franklin (1738); 8. Proposal for promoting useful knowledge (1743); 9. Speech of Miss Polly Baker (1747); 10. Plain truth (1747); 11. Form of the association and remarks (1747); 12. Advice to a young tradesman, written by an old one (1748); 13. Proposals relating to the education of youth in Pennsylvania; 14. Observations concerning the increase of mankind (1751); 15. Letter to James Parker (1751); 16. Rattlesnakes for Felons (1751); 17. Letter to Peter Collinson (1753); 18. Letter to Peter Collinson (1753); 19. Join or die (1754); 20. Reasons and motives for the Albany Plan of Union (1754); 21. Letters to Governor Shirley (1754) with a preface of 1766; 22. Preface to poor Richard improved (1757); 23. Letter to ________ (1757); 24. Letter to Lord Kames (1760); 25. On the price of corn, and the management of the poor (1766); 26. Letter to Lord Kames (1767); 27. Causes of the American discontents before 1768 (1768); 28. The Somersett case and the slave trade (1772); 29. Rules by which a Great Empire may be reduced to a small one (1773); 30. An edict by the King of Prussia (1773); 31. On a proposed act to prevent immigration (1773); 32. Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union (1775); 33. Morals of Chess (1779); 34. The Whistle (1779); 35. Letter to Joseph Priestley (1780); 36. Letter to Joseph Priestley (1782); 37. Letter to Richard Price (1782); 38. Letter to Robert Morris (1783); 39. Remarks concerning the savages of North America (1784); 40. Letter to Sarah Franklin Bache (1784); 41. Information to those who would remove to America (1784); 42. Letter to Benjamin Vaughan (1784); 43. At the Constitutional Convention (1787); 44. Queries and remarks (1789); 45. On the Slave Trade (1790); Index.