Autobiography of Ben Franklin

Both Ben Franklin and Hewes were men born to poor families who most people wouldn't predict to be heroes or prominent figures in our country.  These men worked hard in life to accomplish something.  Franklin's autobiography basically is a story of a man living the American dream.  Franklin was one of 17 children and the last son.  His father encouraged him to become a priest.  Franklin was a hard worker from young up.  He defied the odds of a boy coming from a poor family.  His hard work made him the man we know today.
Somethings that shocked me about this book:
Franklin very much came off as an arrogant man.  He always tried to prove to everyone how well he was doing and how he was succeeding.  He included the two letters addressed to him which basically praised him.  He wrote the book basically as a self-betterment book to help others basically become the man he was. He wrote Poor Richard's Almanac to give instruction to the "common people."
I thought it was weird how he didn't talk much about the death of his son.  Most parents would describe something of that magnitude as a major event in life and he skipped right over it.  Almost like he wanted to focus of the positives in his public life rather than bring up his private life as a father.
I think Ben Franklin had every job possible.  As I read I was shocked how many different things he had done in life and how that experience probably helped him succeed.  This book will definitely change some of the views I had of Franklin both positively and negatively. I think many of us think of these historical figures and just think good and wonderful thoughts.  This book showed me a different side to Franklin which made him more human to me.  These figures were much like us and there is a lot more to their story than we often know.

Its a Tough Life for those Historians

After reading parts of the book The Shoemaker and the Tea Party, it really opened my eyes to how easily historical stories and events can be different.  Both authors in this book, wrote two different biographies after talking to Hewes. This reminds me of the activity we did during our summer workshop at one of the stations where we read recollections from different people at the same historical event and how different each was.  It's tough as a historian because you can't just base your facts on one side of the story.  You need to find many primary sources to validate your story your about to tell.  I guess the question is how do you determine the best way to represent the information you acquire?  I definitely took advantage of our history books.  It's not something that you can sit down and write.  The amount of work and research that goes into the telling of each event is unreal to me.  It should almost make you feel at ease that history is at our fingertips and we get this information so easily thanks to the work of these historians.