Stealing God's Thunder by Philip Dray audiobook

Stealing God's Thunder: Benjamin Franklin's Lightning Rod and the Invention of America

By Philip Dray
Read by David Chandler

Recorded Books, Inc.
9.49 Hours • Unabridged
Format : Digital Download (In Stock)
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    ISBN: 9781449801694

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Award-winning author Philip Dray delves into the lesser-known side of an American icon in Stealing God's Thunder. Benjamin Franklin, more often viewed as a statesman and founding father than as a man of science, challenged religion, science, and reason with his inventions. But in a time when everything was blamed on sin, it was the lightning rod- Franklin's attempt to control the heavens-that caused the greatest controversy.

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Summary

Summary

Award-winning author Philip Dray delves into the lesser-known side of an American icon in Stealing God's Thunder. Benjamin Franklin, more often viewed as a statesman and founding father than as a man of science, challenged religion, science, and reason with his inventions. But in a time when everything was blamed on sin, it was the lightning rod- Franklin's attempt to control the heavens-that caused the greatest controversy.

Editorial Reviews

Editorial Reviews

“Absorbing…There are other Franklins—the entrepreneur, the diplomat, the statesman, the architect of independence—but in Franklin the scientist, Mr. Dray may have found the happiest one of all.” —New York Times
“A masterful glimpse of…Franklin’s work [and] a captivating cultural history of Franklin’s America.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Delightful…Dray offers a survey of Ben Franklin’s scientific career, describing both the ridicule and glory that his experiments inspired.” —Wall Street Journal
“[An] illuminating study…elegantly written.” —Los Angeles Times
“The best study of Franklin as a scientist ever written.” —Joseph J. Ellis, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Founding Brothers
“Philip Dray capture the genius and ingenuity of Franklin’s scientific thinking and then does something even more fascinating: he shows how science shaped his diplomacy, politics, and Enlightenment philosophy.” —Walter Isaacson, author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
“Philip Dray has coaxed the familiar toward new dimensions and has succeeded in making the complex entirely, enthrallingly clear. This is a wise and lucid book, vastly informative, and a pleasure to read.” —Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France and the Birth of America

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Author

Author Bio: Philip Dray

Author Bio: Philip Dray

Philip Dray is the author of several books of American cultural and political history, including At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America, which won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is an adjunct professor in the department of journalism and design at Eugene Lang College.

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Details

Details

Available Formats : Digital Download, CD
Runtime: 9.49
Audience: Adult
Language: English

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