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The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin
by
Gordon S. Wood
Thursday, March 31, 2005, at 7:30 p.m.
Antiquarian Hall
185 Salisbury Street, Worcester, Massachusetts
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Benjamin Franklin is often considered the most congenial of our founding
fathers, and his aphorisms and legendary rags-to-riches life story have
inspired generations of Americans. But how well do we know Franklin? In
this lecture, based upon his provocative new book, The Americanization
of
Benjamin Franklin, Pulitzer-prize winning historian Gordon Wood
reveals
the true Franklin with his preoccupation to become an English Gentlemen,
his intense loyalty to the Crown, and finally his remarkable and powerful
conversion to revolutionist and quintessential American.
Gordon S. Wood is the Alva O. Way University Professor and professor of
history at Brown University. His 1969 book, The Creation of the
American
Republic, 1776-1787, received the Bancroft and John H. Dunning prizes
and
was nominated for the National Book Award. His 1992 book, The
Radicalism
of the American Revolution, won the Pulitzer Prize and the Emerson
Prize.
Wood contributes regularly to The New Republic and The New York Review of
Books.
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This lecture is open to the public free of charge.
Directions to Antiquarian Hall
Please consult the 2005 schedule
for a
complete list of this year's public lectures.
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