...Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706 as the tenth of his father’s seventeen children. His father, Josiah Franklin, made candles and soaps for a living, and had his own shop. Benjamin had to leave school at the age of ten to begin working there, but continued to study independently afterwards. When he was twelve, he became his older brother, James’ apprentice. James Franklin worked as a printer for a newspaper, and soon enough, Benjamin Franklin started submitting his own writing to be published in the paper. However, he did so with the pen name Silence Dogood, because he knew his brother would never allow him to submit his work. After writing over a dozen essays, Ben Franklin confessed to his older brother that he was Silence Dogood, and James Franklin was furious. Later, James Franklin was imprisoned for the opinions featured in his newspaper, and Benjamin had to maintain the shop in his absence. When James was released, he treated his younger brother with the same hostility as before James’ arrest. Due to his brother’s mistreatment of him, Benjamin Franklin went to live in Philadelphia....
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...Joe Cohan History 251 Writing Assignment #1 As human beings age, the opportunity to move up through the social hierarchy seems to disappear. In Gordon S. Wood’s biography, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin, he tells a unique story that allows us to take a deeper look into almost every social class of the 18th century. As Franklin makes his way through the social hierarchy, Gordon Wood paints a picture of what society was like and how it works around Franklin. Franklin portrays this hierarchy through his own work and his interactions with other members of society. Also as Franklin moves up the social ladder, Wood gives different perspectives from Franklin on his social standing and how he is a “self-made man”. From being a child of a lower-class family to becoming a huge influence on the Revolutionary War, Benjamin Franklin is one of the most interesting Founding Fathers. Starting with Franklin’s father, who has one of the lowliest jobs as a candle and soap maker, the social hierarchy begins at the bottom and with all of the artisan jobs that fall into that category. Franklin being the 15th of 17 children in the family shows that low class families were very large in size, making it very difficult for the youngest children of the family to gain any property or status. Primogeniture being the custom of the American colonies in the early 18th century makes it difficult for Ben Franklin to advance, putting him at a disadvantage. This disadvantage only helps to...
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...Benjamin Franklin was extraordinarily famous for many accomplishments. He was an author, politician, printer, and one of America’s Founding Fathers. Franklin also discovered electricity, and invented bifocals, the lightning rod, Franklin stove, glass harmonica, odometer, and jokingly, daylight savings time. Franklin, living in Paris at the time, joked that the French slept in too late, that they wasted all the daylight. In Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography, Franklin displays a subtle sense of humor throughout different forms of set pieces in the book, including his father’s religious devotion, using an alias, and his probable pride in humility. In Part One of the Autobiography, Franklin jokes that while all nine of his older brothers became protégés of craft occupations, his father intended “to devote me as the Tithe of his Sons to the Service of the Church” (14). Franklin pokes fun at his father by implying that instead of donating a tenth of his income to the church, he is donating a tenth of his sons. He presents himself as a young man on the road to fame by showing he is different that the rest of his family and the only one of his brothers earning an education. At such a young age, he felt his education gave him superiority with his family, but his older brothers thought differently. Franklin started working as a trainee for his brother’s printing shop, which he thought he should be running. Franklin also uses a confident humor as he makes himself the laughingstock of...
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...The Founding Father The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin Socrates once said “Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings.” This is exactly what the men known as the wisest American achieved: self-betterment through readings and writings of other authors. In his Autobiography Benjamin Franklin takes us not only into a tour of his life but also in the journey he traveled in the 18th century, which allowed him to become the person we know of today. Franklin’s determination to persevere and learn from writings of other authors is the key points of the Autobiography that help make it an inspirational self-empowered autobiography. Unlike many other autobiographies Franklin starts this one as a letter to his son and governor of New Jersey in 1771, William Franklin. He writes in an attempt to inform his son of the life he once traveled. In this part of the Autobiography we are introduced to his family genealogy. Through this we find out that he is the youngest of the youngest son, Josiah, who though he made and sold candles and soap was a well-respected man. His mother Abiah, being a woman, had only one choice and that was to be a stay at home mom and take care of their children. Though at the time most men were put into trades and molded into being apprentices, Josiah saw something unique in Franklin and decided to enroll him into grammar school, marking the beginning of Franklin’s lifelong and impressive career. At age twelve Franklins...
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...Benjamin Franklin David Duron AP Psychology 5th Hour Mr. Compton April 12, 2013 Benjamin Franklin was a very astonishing man who accomplished many things not only for America as a politician and Founding Father, but for all of humanity. Our father of electricity is known and remembered for many things, poet, for being and inventor, a mediator, and probably best known for flying a kite with a key tied on during a lightning storm. Franklin was the son of a Bostonian soap boiler, born on January 17, 1706 the eighth child of ten. His parents were Josiah Franklin, and Abiah Folger Franklin. Abiah franklin was the second wife of Josiah and raised his late wife’s eight, and her own ten children, eighteen total Franklin children. Abiah was born in Nantucket Massachusetts and raised as a Puritan, which had influence on young Benjamin. Not to a lot of other extended information is known about his mother (NSDAR). His father Josiah was born in England in 1657 and migrated to Boston for more religious freedom. Again not too much information is known about his father as well. Josiah had a very influential role in Benjamin’s life. The most noted is that he encouraged all of his children to pursue an honest and worthwhile trade after attaining an education. He was certain that Benjamin was going to be a minister but could only afford two years of schooling (Shmoop). Placed at the Boston Latin School, these two short years made him ten and gave him a heightened need for reading, so...
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...Media History Contents 1 Introduction 1.1 Mass media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.1 1.1.2 1.1.3 1.1.4 1.1.5 1.1.6 1.1.7 1.1.8 1.1.9 Issues with definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Forms of mass media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Purposes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Professions involving mass media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Influence and sociology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ethical issues and criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 1 2 6 6 7 8 10 10 10 10 11 11 12 12 12 12 16 16 17 17 17 17 17 17 18 19 20 21 21 21 1.1.10 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.11 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.12 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.13 External links . . . . . . . . ....
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