DB 5A

ENG 205 week 5 Unit A: Benjamin Franklin

1. Discussion board: (200 words)

Reading 1: Benjamin Franklin

Introduction 398-402

The Autobiography : http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/autobiography/ Part 1 & 2

Reading 2: The Fourth Estate and Democracy

READ:  "Print Culture and the Road to Revolution"  Page 370 – 75

While it would be an understatment to point out that Benjamin Franklin is well-known (especially here in Philadelphia, where you are hard-pressed to escape his likeness), most people think of him in popular vignettes: his arrival in Philadelphia, 2 rolls of bread under his arms (p. 418) , the kite experiment, perhaps some of his inventions (the Franklin stove, the lending library, etc.).  Less frequently, people remember that he had a printing shop, the profession that was to earn him his living and later his fortune.  

Discussion Question:

Your reading in Franklin’s Autobiography covers much of his introduction to, and involvement with, the world of printing in the Colonies. 

He even (half-jokingly) suggested the following serve as his epitaph:  

B. Franklin, Printer

               (Like the Cover of an Old Book

                    Its Contents torn Out

          And Stript of its Lettering and Gilding)

                 Lies Here, Food for Worms.

               But the Work shall not be Lost;

        For it will (as he Believ'd) Appear once More

              In a New and More Elegant Edition

                    Revised and Corrected

                       By the Author.

How does Franklin’s insistence of his identity as primarily “a printer” embody Enlightenment ideas?  (for a review, see Week 4).

2. Weekly wiki (150 words). Mark page number please.

Students will choose a short excerpt / quote from one of the readings of that week, type it in, then add a short (150 words or so) explanation for your choice. Was your selection important because it:

· is an example of beautiful or striking language?

· exemplifies a particular theme or character?

· makes the reader think about something in a new way?

· is typically "American" in some way (and in what way)?

· was just something that you liked?

Try not to use the same quote that someone else already has; if you must, make sure that what you say about it is original.

For example:

"My country is the world, and my religion is to do good."  Thomas Paine.  

I chose this quote because I think it is a good example of Enlightenment thought which was very popular during the late 1700's.  Paine is rejecting formal ties to any specific country or any particular religion (humanist world view).  He is focused on the here and now, not an afterlife, and this concern is evident in his writing about social and political systems that influenced the thinkers behind the American Revolution.  The language is simple and straightforward.

3. Write responses for another student’s work. (75 words)

The main definition from Albion Seed of liberty to me was the similarities to hegemonic liberty.  “Dominion over self”.  Thomas Paine asserts throughout “Common Sense” that Americans are better off without Britain as a parent country.  He explains how European quarrels should not be entangled into American trade.  “Our plan is commerce, and that, well attended to, will secure us the peace and friendship of all Europe; because it is the interest of all Europe to have America a free port, “Thomas Paine said, page 551.  America didn't have enemies in Europe, It only served as a negative impact as being associated with Britain would entangle the colonies.    

His pamphlet delicately guides the differences between each Englishman from one parishioner to another.  He interconnects each person of Britain by town, then county and eventually by country if they were traveling abroad.  What he is keenly aware of us that each person in America is not English and is free from the old parishes of England.  This to me describes “Dominion over others,”  seeing as each American defines himself by colony and township rather than a county in England or Germany. 

This pamphlet is important because it actually serves an American Foreign policy guide up until WW2. The basis of “neutrality” and whether to intervene in European affairs was a hot topic until we were attacked by the Japanese (It’s also why we took so long to enter WW1).   I know this is off topic but this view is still important today in our foreign policy and can be rooted back into Thomas Paine's descriptions of "liberty".