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Drawing from Benjamin Franklin's published and unpublished papers, including letters, notes, and marginalia, Benjamin Franklin and the Ends of Empire examines how the early modern liberalism of Franklin's youthful intellectual life helped foster his vision of independence from Britain that became his hallmark achievement. In the early chapters, Carla Mulford explores the impact of Franklin's family history - especially their difficult times during the
English Civil War - on Franklin's intellectual life and his personal and political goals.The book's middle chapters show how Franklin's fascination with British imperial strategy grew from his
own analyses of the financial, environmental, and commercial potential of North America. Franklin's involvement in Pennsylvania's politics led him to devise strategies for monetary stability, intercolonial trade, Indian affairs, and imperial defense that would have assisted the British Empire in its effort to take over the world. When Franklin realized that the goals of British ministers were to subordinate colonists in a system that assisted the lives of Britons in England but undermined the
wellbeing of North Americans, he began to criticize the goals of British imperialism. Mulford argues that Franklin's turn away from the British Empire began in the 1750s - not the 1770s, as most
historians have suggested - and occurred as a result of Franklin's perceptive analyses of what the British Empire was doing not just in the American colonies but in Ireland and India.In the last chapters, Mulford reveals how Franklin ultimately grew restive, formed alliances with French intellectuals and the court of France, and condemned the actions of the British Empire and imperial politicians. As a whole, Mulford's book provides a fresh reading of a much-admired
founding father, suggesting how Franklin's conception of the freedoms espoused in England's ages old Magna Carta could be realized in the political life of the new American nation.
Drawing from Benjamin Franklin's published and unpublished papers, including letters, notes, and marginalia, Benjamin Franklin and the Ends of Empire examines how the early modern liberalism of Franklin's youthful intellectual life helped foster his vision of independence from Britain that became his hallmark achievement. In the early chapters, Carla Mulford explores the impact of Franklin's family history - especially their difficult times during the
English Civil War - on Franklin's intellectual life and his personal and political goals.The book's middle chapters show how Franklin's fascination with British imperial strategy grew from his
own analyses of the financial, environmental, and commercial potential of North America. Franklin's involvement in Pennsylvania's politics led him to devise strategies for monetary stability, intercolonial trade, Indian affairs, and imperial defense that would have assisted the British Empire in its effort to take over the world. When Franklin realized that the goals of British ministers were to subordinate colonists in a system that assisted the lives of Britons in England but undermined the
wellbeing of North Americans, he began to criticize the goals of British imperialism. Mulford argues that Franklin's turn away from the British Empire began in the 1750s - not the 1770s, as most
historians have suggested - and occurred as a result of Franklin's perceptive analyses of what the British Empire was doing not just in the American colonies but in Ireland and India.In the last chapters, Mulford reveals how Franklin ultimately grew restive, formed alliances with French intellectuals and the court of France, and condemned the actions of the British Empire and imperial politicians. As a whole, Mulford's book provides a fresh reading of a much-admired
founding father, suggesting how Franklin's conception of the freedoms espoused in England's ages old Magna Carta could be realized in the political life of the new American nation.
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: "This obscure Family of ours was early in the
Reformation": On Family Memory
Chapter 2: "I had such a Thirst for Knowledge": Franklin's Boston
Youth
Chapter 3: Franklin's Imperial Imaginings: "Coined Land" and Global
Goals
Chapter 4: Pennsylvania Politics and the Problems of Empire
Chapter 5: "People in the Colonies . . . better Judges": Observing
Empire at Midcentury
Chapter 6: Franklin in London's Theatre of Empire
Chapter 7: Love of Country
Chapter 8: Rebellion to Tyrants, Obedience to God
Chapter 9: "I intended well, and I hope all will end well":
Franklin's Last Years
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography of Printed Sources
Index
Carla Mulford is Professor of English at the Pennsylvania State University and the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Franklin. She is also the founding president of the Society for Early Americanists.
"Mulford's Benjamin Franklin and the Ends of Empire is the fruit of
a lifetime's study of the statesman and polymath, a polemically
engaged and bold attempt to lend coherence to a famously
multifaceted career."--The New York Review of Books
"By adding an analysis of what Franklin read to what he wrote,
Mulford has crafted a remarkably comprehensive account of
Franklin's thinking about the British Empire. The result is a fresh
and illuminating study of one of early America's most written-about
figures By embedding Franklin the writer in the literature that he
and his contemporaries read, Mulford brings Franklin the thinker
back to life in ways that no other recent biographer has managed to
do. In
so doing, she has produced a wonderful tribute to a figure who
remains as fascinating and compelling today as he was in his own
lifetime."--Early American Literature
"One might reasonably ask if anything new can be written about
Benjamin Franklin. Carla J. Mulford's Benjamin Franklin and the
Ends of Empire answers that question with a resounding 'plenty.'
Mulford begins this stimulating and engaging 'literary biography'
with her self-proclaimed 'preoccupation' with Franklin's 1768
articulation of civil liberty Mulford's thorough and thoughtful
analysis of his evolving intellectual commitment to American
liberty has made me
an admirer of Franklin the politician."--The Journal of American
History
"Mulford argues persuasively that [Benjamin Franklin] formulated a
bundle of assumptions about colonial rights and imperial power as a
young man. Over time his thinking evolved, but the fundamental
principles remained unchanged. This is a significant claim, since
in Mulford's telling Franklin developed a coherent theory of
colonial sovereignty well before the final revolutionary
crisis."--Times Literary Supplement
"[T]he most thorough study of Franklin's thinking to date....It is
engaging, thoughtful, and thought-provoking. Methodologically, it
breaks new ground as a 'literary biography.' It helps to
rehabilitate Franklin as a serious thinker on society, politics,
and empire and not simply as a genial spouter of aphorisms and
popular wisdom. Perhaps most important is the contribution it makes
to our understanding of the origins of the American
Revolution."--William
and Mary Quarterly
"Given Mulford's methodology, this book should interest not only
historians and scholars of colonial and US history but also those
who study biography as a genre. Impeccable scholarship and an
accessible style mark this sound effort."--CHOICE
"What new can be said about Benjamin Franklin? Plenty, proves Carla
Mulford in this engaging literary biography. Applying
twenty-first-century sophistication to themes long unfashionable in
literary and scholarly historical circles--liberalism, government,
American identity--Benjamin Franklin and the Ends of Empire is
essential for anyone interested in the political and cultural
origins of the United States."--Daniel K. Richter, author of
Before
the Revolution: America's Ancient Pasts
"Carla Mulford's sweeping study reveals aspects of Benjamin
Franklin's intellectual life that have been given relatively short
shrift by previous scholars. Most scholars view Franklin as
something of a chameleon, even accusing him of having no 'inner
core.' Highlighting continuities (rather than changes) in his
thought, Benjamin Franklin and the Ends of Empire stands as a
much-needed corrective. Mulford painstakingly traces the
intellectual roots of
Franklin's complicated views, giving credit to those who came
before him, to help us understand exactly how he arrived at his
ideas about economy and empire."--Sheila Skemp, author of The
Making of a Patriot:
Benjamin Franklin at the Cockpit
"In Benjamin Franklin and the Ends of Empire, Carla Mulford draws
on a lifetime of study in order to situate Franklin's political and
economic thinking in its Atlantic context. Her detailed discussion
of the intellectual currents through which Franklin moved, during
his rich career, makes plain the uncanny modernity of his
mind."--Douglas Anderson, author of he Unfinished Life of Benjamin
Franklin
"Benjamin Franklin and the Ends of Empire is an important book. It
is engaging, thoughtful, and thought-provoking. Methodologically,
it breaks new ground as a 'literary biography.' It helps to
rehabilitate Franklin as a serious thinker on society, politics,
and empire--and not simply as a genial spouter of aphorisms and
popular wisdom. Perhaps most important is the contribution it makes
to our understanding of the origins of the American
Revolution."--William and Mary Quarterly
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