This engaging account of Franklin's years in Paris and his numerous friendships and romantic conquests there draws on letters written to and from Franklin. Widely praised when it was first published more than twenty years ago, the book provides intriguing insights into eighteenth-century France and the life and the character of America's first ambassador.

This interdisciplinary collection of comparative essays by distinguished historians and literary critics looks at aspects of the thought of Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin and considers the place of these two men in American culture. Probably the two most examined figures of the colonial period, they have often been the object of comparative studies. These characterizations usually portray them as mutually exclusive ideal types, thus placing them in categories as different and opposed as "traditional" and "modern." In these essays--by such scholars as William Breitenbach, Edwin Gaustad, Elizabeth Dunn, and Ruth Bloch--polemical contrasts disappear and Edwards and Franklin emerge as contrapuntal themes in a larger unity. Benjamin Franklin, Jonathan Edwards, and the Representation of American Culture is a valuable addition to scholarship on American literature and thought.

PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • Benjamin Franklin, perhaps the pivotal figure in colonial and revolutionary America, comes vividly to life in this “thorough biography of ... America’s first Renaissance man” (The Washington Post) by the two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, bestselling historian, and author of Our First Civil War. "The authoritative Franklin biography for our time.” —Joseph J. Ellis, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Founding Brothers Wit, diplomat, scientist, philosopher, businessman, inventor, and bon vivant, Benjamin Franklin's "life is one every American should know well, and it has not been told better than by Mr. Brands" (The Dallas Morning News). From penniless runaway to highly successful printer, from ardently loyal subject of Britain to architect of an alliance with France that ensured America’s independence, Franklin went from obscurity to become one of the world’s most admired figures, whose circle included the likes of Voltaire, Hume, Burke, and Kant. Drawing on previously unpublished letters and a host of other sources, acclaimed historian H. W. Brands has written a thoroughly engaging biography of the eighteenth-century genius. A much needed reminder of Franklin’s greatness and humanity, The First American is a work of meticulous scholarship that provides a magnificent tour of a legendary historical figure, a vital era in American life, and the countless arenas in which the protean Franklin left his legacy. Look for H.W. Brands's other biographies: ANDREW JACKSON, THE MAN WHO SAVED THE UNION (Ulysses S. Grant), TRAITOR TO HIS CLASS (Franklin Roosevelt) and REAGAN.

Many books have been written about Bonnie Prince Charlie, but few have brought to light as much new material as this one, including evidence of a short-lived son, born in Paris scarcely two years after the royal fugitive escaped to France following the unlucky Battle of Culloden. The book deals less with the oft-told story of the Prince's crushing defeat in '45 than with his subsequent inability to cope with failure and with the even more devastating personal defeat represented by his arrest in Paris and expulsion from France in 1748. During that critical time - a major turning point in his life - the once generous and compassionate Prince, having failed in his noble ambition either to vanquish his enemies or perish sword in hand, began his long descent into oblivion. One happy event, hitherto unnoted, nevertheless marked this crucial period. As the Prince in 1747-48 watched his world crumbling around him - his father and brother in Rome having abandoned him and given up hope of a Stuart restoration -- he fell in love, for the first time in his life, with his married cousin Louise, Princesse de Rohan, like himself a direct descendant of Poland's King John Sobieski. The Love of a Prince is her story too and an extensive appendix to the work is devoted to the passionate love letters she wrote during their clandestine affair. They convey the full tragedy of an archetypal femme abandonnee whom we observe progressing from the initial joys of young love to inevitable catastrophe. Ultimately, the princess's suffering and her moral defeat become little more than an unhappy subplot in the Prince's own saga of distrust, bad faith and angry failure set amid the intrigues and petty jealousies of the French court. Nearly a decade of researach by the author in the Stuart Papers at Windsor Castle and in private and public archives has gone into the work. Though at times challenging for the general reader because of its period French documentation (retained for the sake of authentic flavour), the work is by no means directed to the specialist alone. Indeed, at times The Love of a Prince reads more like an historical romance than history, despite the total absence of fictional elements. It will appeal to those interested in eighteenth-century history and biography, followers of the royal families of Europe, and especially those long-fascinated by the exploits of one of history's legendary heroes.