BEN & ME

Part biography part travelogue part self-help New York Times bestselling author Eric Weiner follows in the footsteps of Benjamin Franklin mining his life for inspiration and practical lessons for living a purposeful and virtuous life.Ben Franklin lingers in our lives and in our imaginations. One of only two non-presidents to appear on US currency Franklin was a founder statesman scientist inventor diplomat publisher humorist and philosopher. He believed in the American experiment but Ben Franklin’s greatest experiment was…Ben Franklin. In that spirit of betterment Eric Weiner embarks on an ambitious quest to live the way Ben lived.“A warm combination of homage and introspective memoir” (Kirkus Reviews) Ben & Me is a guide to living and thinking well as Ben Franklin did. It is also about curiosity respect for virtue and most of all the elusive goal of self-improvement. As Weiner follows Franklin from Philadelphia to Paris Boston to London he attempts to uncover Ben’s life lessons large and small. We learn how to improve a relationship with someone by inducing them to do a favor for you-a psychological phenomenon now known as The Ben Franklin Effect. We learn about the printing press (the internet of its day) early medicine diplomatic intrigue and of course electricity. And we learn about ethics persuasion humor regret appetite and so much more.At a time when history is either neglected or contested Weiner argues we have much to learn from the past and that we’d all be better off if we acted and thought a bit more like Ben did even if he didn’t always live up to his own high ideals. Engaging smart moving and quirky Ben & Me distills the essence of Franklin’s ideas into grounded practical wisdom for all of us.