Young Benjamin Franklin

Starred review from August 13, 2018
Bunker, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for An Empire on the Edge: How Britain Came to Fight America, again provides an unusual look at American history with this accessible and riveting account of the ancestry and early life of Ben Franklin. Bunker’s diligent research and reconstruction of events from myriad sources were necessitated by Franklin’s own misleading writings; Franklin obscured and distorted his antecedents and upbringing, as when he falsely wrote that he grew up in poverty. Bunker convincingly rebuts that self-serving representation with thoroughly sourced details. Even before getting to Franklin’s childhood, Bunker traces Franklin’s family tree in fascinating fashion, starting with his great-grandfather Henry, born in England in 1573. That opening section showcases the political views and philosophies that would influence Franklin’s own: the Franklin family was affiliated with the Whigs, who advocated ideas that parallel those of the Founding Fathers, including “freedom of worship for dissenters, and taxation only with Parliament’s consent.” Bunker doesn’t glorify the family—he notes their support of slavery, a position that Franklin only renounced late in life—or gloss over Franklin’s failings, including repeated attempts to seduce other men’s wives. The result is a deep, nuanced examination of the formative influences on an iconic American figure.