Book report

This book tell about the life of Benjamin Franklin in a firsthand account. It tells of his early aspirations from childhood, his love of knowledge and drive to expand his mind. It was made so that he could tell people his story, record his life for future generations from his own perspective, and to tell the tale of how a poor young man with ambition became an icon for an entire country. The novel was written in a very short, almost staccato fashion where it is very easy to understand and interpret. The language is a little archaic to me, but that is to be expected with a book written in a foreign time period with a different dialect than I am accustomed to. I found the book to be very inspiring and an incredible story of a man with a dream and the knowledge of how to obtain it.
Section one was addressed to his oldest son, and it talks about how he can't relive his past in person, so he would do the next best thing and record it for his son ,since Benjamin was very fond of his family history and hoped his son would be interested in his life story. It tells a substantial amount of his family history, primarily his father's side.
In his youth he was very intelligent and was sent to school to be a preacher, but it was too expensive for his father to afford. So then, he attended a school for reading and arithmetic, where he learned he was very well adept in his reading, but very ungifted in arithmetic. He failed arithmetic two times, and had to learn it by himself later in life. He apprenticed to his brother James who worked as a print maker when he was very young. He and James got into an argument one day and Benjamin quit his job and moved to Philadelphia, which was a little dramatic. Once he moved to Philadelphia, he became fr...

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...alks about the life of a man whose father is a candle and soap maker by trade, who then when to school to become a priest, couldn't afford the school so he went to regular school and then learned various trades that would benefit him for the rest of his life. He apprenticed to a book printer so he could follow his dreams, became a writer and sail to England, made his way through a rough patch and then came back to America to make a name for himself as one of the most prominent men of his age.
The book is a timeless story, that makes a strong case that anyone can be great if the strive to achieve it. It is one of the best books of its genre, and makes a powerful statement about life in general, not just in this time period. It inspires the reader to strive for greatness and follow what they believe they are meant for, even if it is not their original slot in life.