Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

This long, exhaustively detailed, chronological account of Franklin's life is a wonderful read. I learned that:

• He had even a greater influence on the course of this country than I realized
• He was a lousy husband and father
• He was a dirty old man with a strong attraction to women far younger than him. Not that there is anything wrong with that ;)

It's fair to say that without Franklin, we may never have won independence from England. And even if we had won the war without him, we may not have survived the first Constitutional Convention without his influence. He had a knack for diplomacy and compromise unsurpassed in our history.