Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America

When Benjamin Franklin embarked for France in 1776, he well understood that he was taking the greatest gamble of his career. The colonies were without money, munitions, gunpowder, or common cause. Amid great secrecy, Franklin was dispatched to Paris to solicit aid. He was 70 years old, without any diplomatic training, & possessed of the most rudimentary French. The 8-year posting served as his most vital service to his country, but it was in large part on account of Franklin s fame, charisma, & ingenuity that France underwrote the American Revolution. From these pages emerge a fiercely determined Founding Father, as well as a profound sense of how fragile, improvisational, & international was our country s bid for independence. Illus.