Esprit des Lumières, homme d'état et de sciences, moraliste, écrivain et imprimeur, Benjamin Franklin est aussi l'un des pères fondateurs des États-Unis d'Amérique. A travers son œuvre, il propose une morale de l'argent qui fondera en partie l'imaginaire capitaliste américain. Les Mémoires de Franklin, publiées originellement en français en 1791, occupent la première partie de cet ouvrage. Elles offrent, en plus d'un portrait de la vie du jeune intellectuel, un instantané de la vie sociale, politique et littéraire de son temps.
A leur suite, on trouvera réuni ici, sous le titre Œuvres morales et politiques, un choix de textes indispensable à qui veut situer ce personnage fondamental pour la genèse de l'Amérique moderne.
Benjamin Franklin was an important conservative figure in the American Restoration Movement, especially as the leading antebellum conservative in the northern United States branch of the movement. He is notable as the early and lifelong mentor of Daniel Sommer, whose support of the 1889 Sand Creek Declaration set in motion events which led to the formal division of the Churches of Christ from the Disciples of Christ in 1906.
According to contemporary biographies "His early religious training was according to the Methodist faith, though he never belonged to any church until he united with the Disciples."
In 1856, Franklin began to publish the ultra-conservative American Christian Review, which he published until his death in 1878. Its influence, initially considerable, was said to have waned following the American Civil War. Franklin undertook a rigorous program of publication correspondence, and traveling lectures which took him to "many" U. S. states and Canada.
Franklin's last move was to Anderson, Indiana, where he lived from 1864 until his death.
... Show more