
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 32 Volume 32: March 1 through June 30, 1780 Benjamin Franklin, Barbara B. Oberg
- Price: £95.00
- Add to Basket
Share this page:
- Series:
- The Papers of Benjamin Franklin
- Format:
- Hardback
- Publication date:
- 25 Dec 1996
- ISBN:
- 9780300066173
- Imprint:
- Yale University Press
- Dimensions:
- 744 pages: 219 x 146mm
Categories:
During the spring of 1780, Benjamin Franklin was midway through an eight-and-a-half-year mission to France. He was in good health, energetic, and occupied with a variety of important ministerial tasks and private pursuits. In this volume, the fifth in the sequence dealing with Franklin's tenure as sole minister to the French court, and tenth of a projected twenty volumes covering his years in France, Franklin focuses on diplomatic activities and takes on the role of expressing to France America's pressing needs in this time of economic instability and military stalemate.
Demonstrating wide-ranging talents and activities, Franklin's correspondence is singular in scope and interest. Working purposefully to surmount one difficulty after another, Franklin sought a general prisoner exchange, assisted escaped prisoners, drafted passports, honored bills that were presented to him for payment, and remained involved in the effort to assemble and ship uniforms, arms, and gunpowder to America. During these months he also bought an entire type foundry, purchased two presses, conferred about a script type he had commissioned, received shipments of paper and type from England in spite of the war, designed a method to determine the conductivity of metals, submitted to the Académie des sciences a lengthy memoir on lightning rods for the Strasbourg Cathedral, and penned a jocular essay on 'inflammable air' in response to a Royal Academy of Brussels mathematical prize question that he regarded as frivolous.
Demonstrating wide-ranging talents and activities, Franklin's correspondence is singular in scope and interest. Working purposefully to surmount one difficulty after another, Franklin sought a general prisoner exchange, assisted escaped prisoners, drafted passports, honored bills that were presented to him for payment, and remained involved in the effort to assemble and ship uniforms, arms, and gunpowder to America. During these months he also bought an entire type foundry, purchased two presses, conferred about a script type he had commissioned, received shipments of paper and type from England in spite of the war, designed a method to determine the conductivity of metals, submitted to the Académie des sciences a lengthy memoir on lightning rods for the Strasbourg Cathedral, and penned a jocular essay on 'inflammable air' in response to a Royal Academy of Brussels mathematical prize question that he regarded as frivolous.
Publication of this volume was assisted by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
"Of course Franklin's literary greatness is demonstrated repeatedly by his letters in this volume."?J.A. Leo Lemay, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
-
Reality of Dreams
Japhy Wilson£35.00 -
The Metropolis in Latin America, 1830-1930 - Cityscapes, Photographs, Debates
Idurre Alsonso£55.00 -
Providence and the Invention of American History
Sarah Koenig£35.00 -
From Sarah to Sydney
June Cummins£25.00 -
Hot Protestants
Michael P. Winship£12.99 -
Unrevolutionary Mexico
Paul Gillingham£35.00 -
A Life Together
Eric Van Young£40.00 -
The Science of Abolition
Eric Herschthal£30.00 -
Grey Wars
N. W. Collins£19.50 -
Spatial Orders, Social Forms
Adrian Anagnost£60.00 -
Latecomer State Formation
Sebastian Mazzuca£40.00 -
Why the New Deal Matters
Eric Rauchway£20.00 -
Social Constellations and Settlement Practice
Daphne E. Gallagher£20.00 -
African Americans and Africa
Nemata Amelia Ibitayo Blyden£16.00 -
American Contagions
John Fabian Witt£12.99 -
American Covenant
Michael A Soukup£20.00 -
The Bonds of Womanhood
Nancy F. Cott£14.99 -
The Last Shah
Ray Takeyh£25.00 -
A Question of Freedom
William G. Thomas£25.00 -
The Last Slave Ships
John Harris£25.00
-
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin£95.00 -
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin£85.00 -
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 41
Benjamin Franklin£65.00 -
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 40
Benjamin Franklin£95.00 -
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 39
Benjamin Franklin£95.00 -
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 38
Benjamin Franklin£95.00 -
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 37
Benjamin Franklin£100.00 -
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 36
Benjamin Franklin£95.00 -
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 35
Benjamin Franklin£95.00 -
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 34
Benjamin Franklin£95.00 -
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 33
Benjamin Franklin£100.00 -
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 31
Benjamin Franklin£95.00 -
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 30
Benjamin Franklin£95.00 -
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 29
Benjamin Franklin£95.00 -
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 28
Benjamin Franklin£95.00 -
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 27
Benjamin Franklin£95.00 -
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 26
Benjamin Franklin£95.00 -
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 25
Benjamin Franklin£95.00 -
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 24
Benjamin Franklin£95.00