The Restless Genius of Benjamin Franklin

Franklin’s genius is a puzzle. Born the tenth son of a decidedly humble family of Puritan candle-makers in Boston in 1706, Franklin’s rise to the front ranks of science, engineering, and invention was as unexpected as it was meteoric. In this talk, we will examine many of Franklin’s ideas to make life simpler, cheaper, and easier. Hardly the tortured genius, Franklin took a schoolchild’s pleasure in experimentation, even when things went wrong—which they did all the time!

Instructor: Richard Bell, Associate Professor of History, University of Maryland
$ 13.00
Session