★ 03/14/2022
Historian Meyer (Last Days of Old Beijing) takes an engrossing look at a lesser-known aspect of Benjamin Franklin’s legacy. Shortly before his death in 1790, Franklin added a codicil to his will allocating £1,000 (equivalent to $133,000 today) each to Boston and Philadelphia, requiring that the money be used to distribute low-interest loans to young, married tradesmen. Drawing on a plan devised by a French mathematician, Franklin projected that with compound interest and careful management, the funds would grow to more than $17 million each by the bicentennial of his death, at which point they were to be “cashed out and spent on civic improvements.” Meyer incorporates intriguing tidbits from Franklin’s biography into the history of the funds, which grew at different rates in Boston and Philadelphia. (The entirety of the Boston fund went to the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology in 1994; the Philadelphia Foundation continues to manage its Franklin Trust Funds.) In the 20th century, Boston trustees voted to include medical students in the loan scheme, while Pennsylvania activist Walter Lyon lobbied for allocations toward environmental conservation. Meyer praises Franklin’s foresight and belief in skilled labor and laments that today, apprenticeship programs lag far behind four-year universities. Enriched by vivid character sketches and lucid explanations of financial and policy matters, this is an entertaining examination of how a wise investment pays off. Agent: Georges Borchardt, Georges Borchardt Inc. (Apr.)
Deeply researched and beautifully written, Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet is also utterly original: the history of a great man’s legal and philanthropic afterlife. By beginning at the end—Franklin’s death, and his unusual will—Meyer embarks on a tale that reveals both the origins of American philanthropy and its trajectory over more than two centuries.”
Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet is the charming, wide-ranging tale of Franklin’s dying bequest to the tradesmen of Boston and Philadelphia and its abiding legacy. Meyer is a brilliant guide, unwinding for us the many threads that link this founding father to a modern-day America he would barely have recognized.”
"Throughout this narrative of the checkered conformance to Franklin's intention, Meyer wryly injects apt adages from Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack into his own lively prose. A unique and entrancing investigation."
Benjamin Franklin gave more than his thoughts to the future of the young republic he helped establish. As Michael Meyer explains in this illuminating account, the founder also bequeathed an enduring financial endowment to his beloved ‘leather apron’ men—the working people of Boston, Philadelphia, and America. Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet is a welcome and timely addition to our understanding of Franklin’s age, as well as our own.”
[Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet] provides a glorious wealth of information on Franklin’s family life, work, dedication to the common man, and determination to see the great American experiment in which he was so intimately involved grow and thrive.
If anyone had told me you could find something genuinely new about one of the founding fathers, I wouldn’t have believed it. But Michael Meyer’s extraordinary tale of this amazingly foresighted project of Ben Franklin’s proves me wrong—and makes for lively and fascinating reading.”
From the first page, Michael Meyer's storytelling talent grips you and doesn’t let go. Benjamin Franklin's Last Bet is a surprising and important read that follows the financial and cultural ripples caused by the founding father's death, from the surprising revelations that appear in his will right up to the present day. Full of rich detail and deftly-rendered twists and turns, this is a superb read that will make you see Franklin, and our American culture today, in an entirely new light.”
"Michael Meyer’s marvelous book has it all: life, death, love, money, generosity, and greed, not to mention the seeds of microfinance, the miracle of compound interest, and the important lesson that an idealistic vision, even if imperfectly executed, can change lives."
"Throughout this narrative of the checkered conformance to Franklin's intention, Meyer wryly injects apt adages from Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack into his own lively prose. A unique and entrancing investigation."
2022-01-22
A portrait of the great revolutionary leader as a working-class populist.
Like the other Founding Fathers, writes historian Meyer, Benjamin Franklin was morally compromised: He pledged himself to the cause of liberty, yet he kept slaves throughout his life. That fact has been long known but little publicized. So, too, the subject of this book, namely a fund that Franklin established toward the end of his life that would endow the cities of Philadelphia, where Franklin made his fortune, and Boston, where he studied, with funds that would mature over the centuries, meanwhile providing small loans to working-class people to be repaid with interest over 10-year periods. “Although the term would not be coined for another two centuries,” writes Meyer, “Franklin’s ethical lending scheme can be seen as a forerunner of microfinance.” In addition, thanks to the miracle of compound interest, a portion of the funds—which amounted to a bit under $4,500 in the money of the time but which, properly managed, should have yielded billions today—were also to be distributed to the cities for public works improvements. Franklin made numerous assumptions that didn’t hold, among them that the funds would be competently administered by civic-minded volunteers and repaid on time. Neither happened thanks to various financial crises in the days before central banking. In 1828, Meyer writes, “Philadelphia’s auditor—making a soft approximation—penciled in a balance of $9,919.50, a calamitous 43 percent slide in only four years.” What should have been billions amounted to just a few million two centuries later, and the inequality that Franklin meant to combat by helping workers build businesses and trade education has mounted. Still, as Meyer notes, despite mismanagement and neglect, that there’s any money left at all should count as a plus, as well as the fact that Franklin’s “example of civic virtue has been carried forward, as he had hoped, for two hundred years.”
Meyer’s book sheds fascinating light on an icon who has been reduced to a symbol.
An engrossing look at a lesser-known aspect of Benjamin Franklin's legacy . . . Enriched by vivid character sketches and lucid explanations of financial and policy matters, this is an entertaining examination of how a wise investment pays off.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“If anyone had told me you could find something genuinely new about one of the founding fathers, I wouldn’t have believed it. But Michael Meyer’s extraordinary tale of this amazingly foresighted project of Ben Franklin’s proves me wrong—and makes for lively and fascinating reading.” — Adam Hochschild, New York Times bestselling author
“A portrait of the great revolutionary leader as a working-class populist… Meyer’s book sheds fascinating light on an icon who has been reduced to a symbol.” — Kirkus Reviews
"Throughout this narrative of the checkered conformance to Franklin's intention, Meyer wryly injects apt adages from Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack into his own lively prose. A unique and entrancing investigation." — Booklist
"[Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet] provides a glorious wealth of information on Franklin’s family life, work, dedication to the common man, and determination to see the great American experiment in which he was so intimately involved grow and thrive." — Philadelphia Magazine
"Michael Meyer’s marvelous book has it all: life, death, love, money, generosity, and greed, not to mention the seeds of microfinance, the miracle of compound interest, and the important lesson that an idealistic vision, even if imperfectly executed, can change lives." — Anne Fadiman, National Book Critics Circle Award–winning author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
“From the first page, Michael Meyer's storytelling talent grips you and doesn’t let go. Benjamin Franklin's Last Bet is a surprising and important read that follows the financial and cultural ripples caused by the founding father's death, from the surprising revelations that appear in his will right up to the present day. Full of rich detail and deftly-rendered twists and turns, this is a superb read that will make you see Franklin, and our American culture today, in an entirely new light.” — A.J. Baime, New York Times best-selling author of White Lies and The Accidental President
“Deeply researched and beautifully written, Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet is also utterly original: the history of a great man’s legal and philanthropic afterlife. By beginning at the end—Franklin’s death, and his unusual will—Meyer embarks on a tale that reveals both the origins of American philanthropy and its trajectory over more than two centuries.” — Peter Hessler, New York Times best-selling author of Oracle Bones, finalist for the National Book Award
“Benjamin Franklin gave more than his thoughts to the future of the young republic he helped establish. As Michael Meyer explains in this illuminating account, the founder also bequeathed an enduring financial endowment to his beloved ‘leather apron’ men—the working people of Boston, Philadelphia, and America. Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet is a welcome and timely addition to our understanding of Franklin’s age, as well as our own.” — Philip Dray, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and author of Stealing God’s Thunder: Benjamin Franklin’s Lightning Rod and the Invention of America
“Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet is the charming, wide-ranging tale of Franklin’s dying bequest to the tradesmen of Boston and Philadelphia and its abiding legacy. Meyer is a brilliant guide, unwinding for us the many threads that link this founding father to a modern-day America he would barely have recognized.” — Stephen R. Platt, author of Imperial Twilight, finalist for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction
“What Meyer has done is remarkable: find an aspect of Franklin’s life that has not been written about to death… A lively and engrossing narrative of how a person known for so many other things can make a mark by also being a philanthropist. Tech titans, take note.” — Air Mail
