I am almost done reading Benjamin Franklin Unmasked: On the Unity of His Moral, Religious, and Political Thought by Jerry Weinberger.
Weinberger carefully examined one of the most interesting ‘founding fathers’ of the United States and delivered a more than fascinating result with Benjamin Franklin Unmasked.
Franklin is – perhaps – the most mysterious founding father: when one first reads his articles / books / works / essays, one might be tempted to think that Franklin writes exactly what he thinks. Upon studying his works, though, one cannot help but notice the contradictions and one starts wondering: how could someone with his intelligence and someone as precise as Benjamin Franklin contradict himself, especially on matters like religion? Weinberger argues convincingly in his book that those contradictions were not made accidentally. They were meant to make the reader think for himself. They were meant to disguise his real thoughts for the less than careful reader, but they were also meant to be obvious clues for the more (than) careful reader.
As the reviews at the Amazon link I provided above mention, Benjamin Franklin Unmasked is not just incredibly insightful and fascinating… it is also darn funny. No, more than funny, it truly is hilarious. Franklin had a marvelous sense of humor and was not afraid to make fun of everything; including religion and himself. From one of those reviews, written by J. Novak;
Jerry Weinberger has truly revealed the real Franklin behind the masks. First, this book is truly hilarious…Franklin’s scatalogical humor, his idea to create sweet-smelling flatulence, or his advice to bed older women who will be more grateful, makes reading this also-serious work a laugh riot!
Second, Weinberger has taken Franklin more seriously than anyone else to date and lays bare the real intent behind his though. The review by “Dave” here completely misses the point of the book. Franklin mocked everything and everyone, including himself, so one has to look beyond the words written to the true meaning, which is revealed by Weinberger to lie in numerous contradictions, confusing language and re-worded poems. For example, the “contradiction” that “Dave” fails to see is that Franklin at one point in his Autobiography mentions that he never stopped believing in god; something that completely contradicts an earlier claim by Franklin that he did indeed stop believing, only to return to religion later in life. As Weinberger mentions, is it believable or possible that a religious person could forget that he once did not believe, or forget the very moment at which he became a believer? Hardly. Weinberger’s task is to unravel this mystery…and he does so masterfully.
If you want to know Benjamin Franklin beyond what is presented in the biographies (and I have read those by Brands and Isaacson) to see the true depth and power of his thoughts, Weinberger’s book is excellent!
I know that there are a couple of commenters here at TMV who enjoy reading about people like Franklin, I am especially thinking of the commenter known as ‘BeYourGuest’. To him and to all others I say: buy and read Benjamin Franklin Unmasked, to not read it is to not understand Benjamin Franklin.
