The Greatest American: Benjamin Franklin, History's Most Versatile Genius

“I have sometimes almost wished it had been my destiny to have been born two or three centuries hence.” -- Ben Franklin

Was Benjamin Franklin an indispensable public servant or a cunning chameleon? A hard-headed entrepreneur or an opportunistic privateer? A devoted family man or a notorious womanizer? A scientist and inventor or a hoaxer and self promoter? A believer or a heretic? The first civilized American or the most dangerous man in America?

Read this book, and you decide!

In The Greatest American, Dr. Mark Skousen—“America’s Economist” and a direct descendant of the old man—reveals many new features and little-known facts about Ben Franklin, such as:
- The surprising benefits of inflation to pay for the American Revolution.
- How the War of Independence transformed him from a religious heretic to a believing theist.
- Why he hated party politics.
- How he changed his mind about slavery and became a devote abolitionist.
- The truth about his love affairs with women. Did he really abandon his wife Deborah, or did she abandon him?
- Why he never applied for any patents for his famous inventions.
- Why George Washington loved Franklin and John Adams despised him.
- Why he turned against his beloved son, William, and never forgave him.
- His preference for private welfare and charities rather than state-run social programs and welfare.

Benjamin Franklin was the oldest of the founding fathers -- he was indeed a whole generation ahead of George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson -- and yet he was the most forward-looking of the group and the most modern of the founders. The Greatest American shows just how much of an impact Benjamin Franklin had on American politics and daily life.