
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
Part biography, part travelogue, part self-help, New York Times bestselling author Eric Weiner follows in the footsteps of Benjamin Franklin, mining his life for inspiration and practical lessons for living a purposeful and virtuous life.
Ben Franklin lingers in our lives and in our imaginations. One of only two non-presidents to appear on US currency, Franklin was a founder, statesman, scientist, inventor, diplomat, publisher, humorist, and philosopher. He believed in the American experiment, but Ben Franklin’s greatest experiment was…Ben Franklin. In that spirit of betterment, Eric Weiner embarks on an ambitious quest to live the way Ben lived.
“A warm combination of homage and introspective memoir” (Kirkus Reviews), Ben & Me is a guide to living and thinking well, as Ben Franklin did. It is also about curiosity, respect for virtue, and, most of all, the elusive goal of self-improvement. As Weiner follows Franklin from Philadelphia to Paris, Boston to London, he attempts to uncover Ben’s life lessons, large and small. We learn how to improve a relationship with someone by inducing them to do a favor for you—a psychological phenomenon now known as The Ben Franklin Effect. We learn about the printing press (the internet of its day), early medicine, diplomatic intrigue, and, of course, electricity. And we learn about ethics, persuasion, humor, regret, appetite, and so much more.
At a time when history is either neglected or contested, Weiner argues we have much to learn from the past and that we’d all be better off if we acted and thought a bit more like Ben did, even if he didn’t always live up to his own high ideals. Engaging, smart, moving, and quirky, Ben & Me distills the essence of Franklin’s ideas into grounded, practical wisdom for all of us.
Ben Franklin lingers in our lives and in our imaginations. One of only two non-presidents to appear on US currency, Franklin was a founder, statesman, scientist, inventor, diplomat, publisher, humorist, and philosopher. He believed in the American experiment, but Ben Franklin’s greatest experiment was…Ben Franklin. In that spirit of betterment, Eric Weiner embarks on an ambitious quest to live the way Ben lived.
“A warm combination of homage and introspective memoir” (Kirkus Reviews), Ben & Me is a guide to living and thinking well, as Ben Franklin did. It is also about curiosity, respect for virtue, and, most of all, the elusive goal of self-improvement. As Weiner follows Franklin from Philadelphia to Paris, Boston to London, he attempts to uncover Ben’s life lessons, large and small. We learn how to improve a relationship with someone by inducing them to do a favor for you—a psychological phenomenon now known as The Ben Franklin Effect. We learn about the printing press (the internet of its day), early medicine, diplomatic intrigue, and, of course, electricity. And we learn about ethics, persuasion, humor, regret, appetite, and so much more.
At a time when history is either neglected or contested, Weiner argues we have much to learn from the past and that we’d all be better off if we acted and thought a bit more like Ben did, even if he didn’t always live up to his own high ideals. Engaging, smart, moving, and quirky, Ben & Me distills the essence of Franklin’s ideas into grounded, practical wisdom for all of us.
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Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Ben & Me by Eric Weiner in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Historical Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Author’s Note
- Introduction: Alien Ben
- Chapter One: Resting Ben
- Chapter Two: Baby Ben
- Chapter Three: Bookish Ben
- Chapter Four: Empirical Ben
- Chapter Five: Masked Ben
- Chapter Six: Grounded Ben
- Chapter Seven: Wandering Ben
- Chapter Eight: Resilient Ben
- Chapter Nine: Homeward Ben
- Chapter Ten: Fluid Ben
- Chapter Eleven: Social Ben
- Chapter Twelve: Habitual Ben
- Chapter Thirteen: Textual Ben
- Chapter Fourteen: Curious Ben
- Chapter Fifteen: Funny Ben
- Chapter Sixteen: Buddha Ben
- Chapter Seventeen: Naked Ben
- Chapter Eighteen: Angry Ben
- Chapter Nineteen: Reflective Ben
- Chapter Twenty: Decisive Ben
- Chapter Twenty-One: Busy Ben
- Chapter Twenty-Two: Full Ben
- Chapter Twenty-Three: Floating Ben
- Chapter Twenty-Four: Doubting Ben
- Chapter Twenty-Five: Belated Ben
- Chapter Twenty-Six: Eternal Ben
- Epilogue: Beyond Ben
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- Copyright