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The Nine Lives of Benjamin Franklin with Dr. Richard Bell

The Nine Lives of Benjamin Franklin with Dr. Richard Bell


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Can't make this time? A video recording will be sent to all participants after the seminar.

Benjamin Franklin's genius is a puzzle. Despite having only two years of formal schooling, he would end up receiving honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, Oxford, and St. Andrews, as well as the 18th century’s equivalent of a Nobel Prize for Physics.

Like his hero, Isaac Newton, Franklin was driven by a perpetual dissatisfaction with the world as he knew it. He optimized, tinkered, and improved. Hardly the tortured genius, he took a schoolboy's pleasure in everything he made. Experimenting was a constant source of beauty, pleasure, and amusement for him, even when things went wrong (which they did all the time).

In this Conversation historian, Richard Bell will examine many of Franklin's ideas to make life simpler, cheaper, and easier for himself and everyone else. We’ll learn how his ideas encompassed not only natural science and engineering—the kite experiments and the bifocals for which he is justly remembered—but also all sorts of works, civic improvements, political innovation, and fresh new business ideas. We’ll discuss his experimenter's instinct, his relentless drive to build a better world one small piece at a time, even encompassed innovations in medical device design, in music, in cookery, and in ventriloquism. Participants will emerge with a much deeper understanding of this intriguing character beyond what meets the eye.

Dr. Richard Bell is Professor of History at the University of Maryland. He holds a PhD from Harvard University and has won more than a dozen teaching awards, including the University System of Maryland Board of Regents Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has held major research fellowships at Yale, Cambridge, the Library of Congress and is the recipient of the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship and the National Endowment of the Humanities Public Scholar Award. Professor Bell is author of the new book "Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped into Slavery and their Astonishing Odyssey Home," which was shortlisted for the George Washington Prize and the Harriet Tubman Prize.

This conversation is suitable for all ages.

90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.

Customer Reviews

Based on 37 reviews
92%
(34)
5%
(2)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
3%
(1)
S
Suzette Shelmire (Oxford, US)
9 lives of Benjamin Franklin

Dr. Bell NEVER dissap;oints! I learned even more why Franklin is a genius and it leads me to read more about him and I certainly will get Ken Burns'video!

d
d.a. (New York, US)

A great talk!

d
d.a. (New York, US)
Benjamin Franklin

A great talk!

S
S.S. (Oxford, US)
9 LIVES OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

This talk by Dr. Bell was the best yet! I just didn't know how fantastic Ben Franklin truly was!! He was a genius - beyond his play with electricity!

C
C.C. (Oxford, US)
Wonderful and Informative

Dr. Richard Bell did a wonderful job bringing Benjamin Franklin’s genius and many innovations. Highly recommend this seminar/conversation!

Customer Reviews

Based on 37 reviews
92%
(34)
5%
(2)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
3%
(1)
S
Suzette Shelmire (Oxford, US)
9 lives of Benjamin Franklin

Dr. Bell NEVER dissap;oints! I learned even more why Franklin is a genius and it leads me to read more about him and I certainly will get Ken Burns'video!

d
d.a. (New York, US)

A great talk!

d
d.a. (New York, US)
Benjamin Franklin

A great talk!

S
S.S. (Oxford, US)
9 LIVES OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

This talk by Dr. Bell was the best yet! I just didn't know how fantastic Ben Franklin truly was!! He was a genius - beyond his play with electricity!

C
C.C. (Oxford, US)
Wonderful and Informative

Dr. Richard Bell did a wonderful job bringing Benjamin Franklin’s genius and many innovations. Highly recommend this seminar/conversation!