Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership – A Dual Biography of Revolution, Constitution, and the Abolitionist-Slaveholder Compromise

"Larson's elegantly written dualbiography reveals that the partnership of Franklin and Washington wasindispensable to the success of the Revolution." —Gordon S. Wood From the Pulitzer Prize-winning historiancomes a masterful, first-of-its-kind dual biography of Benjamin Franklin andGeorge Washington, illuminating their partnership's enduring importance. NATIONAL BESTSELLER • One of Washington Post's "10 Books to Read in February" • One of USA Today’s “Must-ReadBooks" of Winter 2020  •  One of Publishers Weekly's"Top Ten" Spring 2020 Memoirs/BiographiesTheirs was athree-decade-long bond that, more than any other pairing, would forge theUnited States. Vastly different men, Benjamin Franklin—an abolitionistfreethinker from the urban north—and George Washington—a slavehold­ing generalfrom the agrarian south—were the indispensable authors of American independenceand the two key partners in the attempt to craft a more perfect union at theConstitutional Convention, held in Franklin’s Philadelphia and presided over byWashington. And yet their teamwork has been little remarked upon in thecenturies since.Illuminating Franklin and Washington’srelationship with striking new detail and energy, Pulitzer Prize–winninghistorian Edward J. Larson shows that theirs was truly an intimate workingfriendship that amplified the talents of each for collective advancementof the American project.After long sup­porting British rule, both Franklin and Washington became key early proponents of inde­pendence. Their friendship gained historical significance during theAmerican Revolution, when Franklin led America’s diplomatic mission inEurope (securing money and an alliance with France) and Washington commandedthe Continental Army. Victory required both of these efforts to succeed, andsuccess, in turn, required their mutual coordination and cooperation. In the1780s, the two sought to strengthen the union, leading to the framing andratification of the Constitution, the founding document that bears their stamp.Franklin and Washington—the two most reveredfigures in the early republic—staked their lives and fortunes on theAmerican experiment in liberty and were committed to its preservation. Todaythe United States is the world’s great super­power, and yet we also wrestlewith the government Franklin and Washington created more than two centuriesago—the power of the executive branch, the principle of checks and balances,the electoral college—as well as the wounds of their compromise overslavery. Now, as the founding institutions appear under new stress, it is timeto understand their origins through the fresh lens of Larson’s Franklin& Washington, a major addition to the literature of thefounding era. Read more