The Virginia Quarterly Review, January 1st, 2005
The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin, by Gordon S. Wood. Penguin, May 2004. $25.95
For the past decade we have seen a significant surge in the number of biographies written about the Founding Fathers, a phenomenon some have derisively labeled "Founders Chic." Gordon Wood's The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin is not just another entry into the bloated corpus of "Founders Chic." In fact, Wood is a bit perplexed how, when, and why Benjamin Franklin became a so-called Founding Father in the first place. Focusing on the process of "becoming"-each chapter title begins with that verb-Americ...
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