What in the first 40 years of his life made Benjamin Franklin the genius he became?

Benjamin Franklin serves as a great window on to the early American past because as a man of “variety” he pursued many interests: literature, poetry, science, business, philosophy, philanthropy, and politics.

But one aspect of Franklin’s life has gone largely unstudied: his childhood and early life.

Nick Bunker, author of Young Benjamin Franklin: The Birth of Ingenuity, joins us to explore Benjamin Franklin’s early life and how family, childhood, and youthful experiences shaped him as a scientist and diplomat.

This episode originally posted as Episode 207.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/268

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Complementary Episodes

• Episode 086: George Goodwin, Benjamin Franklin in London
• Episode 112: Mary Beth North, The Tea Crisis of 1773
• Episode 160: The Politics of Tea
• Episode 169: Thomas Kidd, The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin
• Episode 175: Daniel Mark Epstein, The Revolution in Ben Franklin’s House

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