The First Scientific American: Benjamin Franklin and the Pursuit of Genius

THE FIRST SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND THE PURSUIT OF GENIUS comes from a history professor at Harvard, who shows how Franklin's evolving status as a scientific genius lends to appreciating his works and the evolution of science as a whole. There have been many biographies of Franklin over the years; but this is the first to narrow the focus on his scientific investigations and how they led to his political prominence. All of his scientific research is considered, linking science works with problem-solving at the social and political levels. New research into documents from his early career and those of his colleagues lend to a unique discussion here. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch