1 00:00:15,240 --> 00:00:19,079 Speaker 1: Self made men existed before America, but they were rare. 2 00:00:19,720 --> 00:00:22,880 Speaker 1: After the American Revolution, they became much more common. They 3 00:00:22,920 --> 00:00:26,720 Speaker 1: came from everywhere. They're still coming. Benjamin Franklin was and 4 00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:31,280 Speaker 1: remains the prototype. One of his recent biographers, Walter Isaacson, 5 00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:34,400 Speaker 1: put it this way, quote he was the most accomplished 6 00:00:34,440 --> 00:00:38,040 Speaker 1: American of his age and the most influential in inventing 7 00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:43,080 Speaker 1: the type of society America would become. Franklin's life, no 8 00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:46,800 Speaker 1: less than his ideas, conveys the indomitable spirit of both 9 00:00:46,840 --> 00:00:51,760 Speaker 1: invention and just as important self invention that define Americans 10 00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:55,920 Speaker 1: and make them almost instantly distinguishable even today by people 11 00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:58,840 Speaker 1: around the world. Born in Boston in seventeen oh five, 12 00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:02,639 Speaker 1: the youngest son and a family of seventeen children, Franklin 13 00:01:02,760 --> 00:01:07,240 Speaker 1: was at various times America's leading scientist, inventor, diplomat, writer, 14 00:01:07,600 --> 00:01:10,440 Speaker 1: and publisher. It's hard to imagine one person could accomplish 15 00:01:10,680 --> 00:01:14,720 Speaker 1: so much in one life. He conducted early experiments and electricity, 16 00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:20,040 Speaker 1: devised bifocal glasses, designed a new type of stove, organized 17 00:01:20,120 --> 00:01:24,360 Speaker 1: lending libraries, formed Philadelphia's first fire department, and founded the 18 00:01:24,360 --> 00:01:28,279 Speaker 1: college that became the University of Pennsylvania. His own formal 19 00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:31,720 Speaker 1: education was two years of high school. His informal education, 20 00:01:31,840 --> 00:01:35,119 Speaker 1: what he taught himself and learned from others, never ended. 21 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:39,880 Speaker 1: His Poor Richard's Almanac, which to spense practical daily wisdom 22 00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:43,600 Speaker 1: and wisecracks an equal measure, was the most popular publication 23 00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:46,440 Speaker 1: of its day. If there was something important going on, 24 00:01:46,520 --> 00:01:48,520 Speaker 1: Franklin was in the middle of it. He was the 25 00:01:48,560 --> 00:01:53,240 Speaker 1: guiding spirit of the American Founding. He desperately tried to 26 00:01:53,320 --> 00:01:55,840 Speaker 1: keep America out of a war with Britain, offering the 27 00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:59,440 Speaker 1: British government every kind of compromise to avoid the conflict. 28 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:02,720 Speaker 1: But when his efforts were rejected and he realized separation 29 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:06,040 Speaker 1: from the mother country was inevitable, he threw his heart 30 00:02:06,040 --> 00:02:10,040 Speaker 1: and soul into the revolutionary cause, the struggle for independence. 31 00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:13,280 Speaker 1: As the American envoy in France during the war, he 32 00:02:13,400 --> 00:02:16,240 Speaker 1: was more responsible than any other person in bringing the 33 00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:21,400 Speaker 1: French to the American side. Without this alliance, it's unlikely 34 00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:23,720 Speaker 1: the rebels would have won. It's more likely, in fact, 35 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:27,040 Speaker 1: that they would have lost, and all the Founders, including Franklin, 36 00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:30,960 Speaker 1: would have been tried, convicted, and executed as traitors to 37 00:02:31,040 --> 00:02:35,320 Speaker 1: the British crown. When the new country won its freedom, Franklin, 38 00:02:35,400 --> 00:02:38,960 Speaker 1: then in his eightieth year, in his eighth decade, near 39 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:41,920 Speaker 1: the end of his life, was again on Center's stage, 40 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:46,080 Speaker 1: helping to guide the quarreling delegates toward a new constitution, 41 00:02:46,240 --> 00:02:49,960 Speaker 1: a novice ordo seclorum, a new order for the ages, 42 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:52,560 Speaker 1: he called it. At a low point in the great 43 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:56,760 Speaker 1: Philadelphia debate over the nation's founding document, when everyone, including Washington, 44 00:02:57,120 --> 00:02:59,240 Speaker 1: was willing to give it up as a bad job, 45 00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:02,760 Speaker 1: Franklin and single handedly saved the enterprise and revived the 46 00:03:02,840 --> 00:03:07,360 Speaker 1: spirits of the delegates by summoning them to an inspirational prayer. 47 00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:09,720 Speaker 1: And it was Franklin who summed up the event for 48 00:03:09,880 --> 00:03:13,000 Speaker 1: posterity when asked what kind of government the Convention had 49 00:03:13,040 --> 00:03:17,160 Speaker 1: created equipped a republic if you can keep it. Franklin 50 00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:20,200 Speaker 1: viewed America itself as a great invention, a new kind 51 00:03:20,280 --> 00:03:23,360 Speaker 1: of nation for a new kind of man. Even so, 52 00:03:23,800 --> 00:03:27,600 Speaker 1: Isaacson concludes, quote, the most interesting thing that Franklin invented 53 00:03:27,639 --> 00:03:34,399 Speaker 1: and continually reinvented was himself. His brilliant autobiography reveals Apollamath, 54 00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:39,080 Speaker 1: who was endlessly curious and endlessly and pleasantly surprised by life. 55 00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:41,880 Speaker 1: He was also never quite satisfied in a way that's 56 00:03:41,960 --> 00:03:46,040 Speaker 1: quintessentially American. He sought to make it whatever he was 57 00:03:46,120 --> 00:03:50,120 Speaker 1: working on better. So he saw construction workers with axes 58 00:03:50,120 --> 00:03:52,720 Speaker 1: building a fort and timed them to see how long 59 00:03:52,760 --> 00:03:56,000 Speaker 1: it took. Inquired into the art by which Native Indians 60 00:03:56,040 --> 00:04:01,720 Speaker 1: concealed their fires, conducted experiments, and published his observations on electricity. 61 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:05,400 Speaker 1: Franklin took his curiosity and turned it on himself. He 62 00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:08,320 Speaker 1: viewed his own life not simply as a story of change, 63 00:04:08,360 --> 00:04:12,400 Speaker 1: but rather as a continuing quest for self improvement. He 64 00:04:12,440 --> 00:04:15,400 Speaker 1: describes in his autobiography how he made a list of 65 00:04:15,440 --> 00:04:18,960 Speaker 1: what he termed the seven virtues temperance, industry, sincerity, and 66 00:04:18,960 --> 00:04:21,960 Speaker 1: so on, and then enumerated them in a single column 67 00:04:22,080 --> 00:04:24,920 Speaker 1: down the left hand side of a page. At the top, 68 00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:27,279 Speaker 1: he listed the seven days of the week. His plan 69 00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:29,840 Speaker 1: was to take the first virtue and practice it for 70 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:33,039 Speaker 1: one week straight. He noted his progress each day with 71 00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:35,479 Speaker 1: a check mark. If he could practice a virtue for 72 00:04:35,560 --> 00:04:39,039 Speaker 1: seven days without a lapse, he reasoned he would internalize it. 73 00:04:39,040 --> 00:04:41,840 Speaker 1: It would become a part of his character, and, as 74 00:04:41,880 --> 00:04:46,200 Speaker 1: his life suggests, it worked. This wise, self deprecating, life 75 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:49,719 Speaker 1: loving man was an American original, and yet he was 76 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:53,800 Speaker 1: also the progenitor of an American type, one who follows 77 00:04:54,040 --> 00:04:57,560 Speaker 1: his own pat Benjamin Franklin. Types from all over the 78 00:04:57,600 --> 00:05:00,479 Speaker 1: world came and droves to America because this was the 79 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:03,800 Speaker 1: place where they could best pursue their passion. In America, 80 00:05:03,880 --> 00:05:07,120 Speaker 1: class didn't matter, country of origin didn't matter, level of 81 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:11,200 Speaker 1: education didn't matter. All that mattered was talent, hard work, 82 00:05:11,400 --> 00:05:14,400 Speaker 1: and luck. In America, you could make of yourself what 83 00:05:14,520 --> 00:05:18,000 Speaker 1: you will, and you still can, just as Benjamin Franklin did. 84 00:05:18,200 --> 00:05:21,800 Speaker 1: He is the original embodiment of the American idea of 85 00:05:21,880 --> 00:05:25,960 Speaker 1: the self directed life, and idea that still defines the 86 00:05:26,040 --> 00:05:27,440 Speaker 1: American experience.