Benjamin Franklin

Walter Isaacson follows Benjamin Franklin from Boston to Philadelphia, London and Paris, tracing how a runaway apprentice became a printer, writer, inventor, scientist, diplomat and political leader over 84 years. The biography covers Poor Richard's Almanac, the Declaration of Independence, the alliance with France, the treaty ending the Revolution and the compromises behind the Constitution. Isaacson presents Franklin as a figure of the Enlightenment and argues for his place in the history of science. He also examines the private man, sociable yet uneasy with close intimacy and distant as a father. Franklin's faith in ordinary citizens, Isaacson argues, helped shape an American identity founded on middle-class virtues.

Elon Musk called Isaacson's Franklin biography really good, pointing to Franklin as an entrepreneur who began as a runaway kid and built his own printing business.