anyway, that's another favorite of mine. i've read a lot of churchill's histories. he was very good for an amateur. he was an amateur. in a sense. and he was very good at it. and i've always tried to imitate historians in making my books readable. it's no use writing books if people don't read them. that's one of the great things in life. and libraries are full of histories quietly collecting dust as the decades roll by and nobody takes them from the shelves. one should always remember that. >> host: how many books have you sold? >> guest: have i? >> host: how many books have you sold? >> guest: oh, sold, god knows. millions. i don't know. i have no idea.

i don't go -- i'm not a writer who is constantly badgering his publishers to get the sales figures. if the figures are poor, you get to know it sooner or later. people tell you, you know? if they're good, well, you get your royalty check. so, so long as the second is healthy and the first doesn't happen, i'm content. >> host: and finally, paul johnson, what are you currently realizing? >> guest: currently reading? >> guest: well, i am reading quite a lot about fdr, franklin roosevelt, because my publishers have suggested that i might like to write a short biography of him. which is a difficult thing to do because he encompassed a remarkably wide-ranging life. but it's a possibility, so i'm reading about him. i'm also reading about lincoln because i may in the end decide

to write a short biography of lincoln. i've just seen that remarkable film about him, and with daniel day lewis. and that seemed to me to stress some of the wrong things. i'd like to give my own version of events. so that's what i'm reading, too, at the moment. >> host: very quickly, what were one of those wrong events that you saw in the movie "lincoln" that you'd like to -- >> guest: well, i think it presented the white house as a sort of messy place with jumbles of papers and things all over the place. i don't think it was like that at all. i think it was a very neat and orderly place because lincoln was a neat and orderly person. >> host: paul johnson has been our guest here on booktv on c-span2. we are in london interviewing british authors. thanks for being with us. >> guest: thank you.

>> for more information on these and other interviews from london, visit booktv.org. and watch booktv every sunday at 6 p.m. other than the next several weeks for more. >> you're watching c-span2 with politics and public affairs. weekdays featuring live coverage of the u.s. senate. on weeknights watch key public policy events and every weekend the latest nonfiction authors and books on booktv. you can see past programs and get our schedule at our web site, and you can join in the conversation on social media sites. >> you're watching booktv. next, jonathan lyons recounts the introduction of the enlightenment to america and the role that benjamin franklin played in its development. this is a little over an hour. [applause]

>> thank you for those kind words. i'd forgotten about some of that stuff. [laughter] that's always good to hear a refresher course. it's really wonderful to be here in seattle. as i mentioned to some of you when i first arrived, my wife and i have only recently relocated to the pacific northwest. we're based out of portland, oregon, having left washington, d.c., the other washington. there is one institution i miss and i'll probably always miss, and that's the library of congress where i wrote this book and most of my three earlier books as well. but i know that quality of life and the quality of discourse, particularly civic discourse, will be greatly improved. [laughter] and i know, also, that benjamin franklin would be particularly pleased to know that i'm speaking here tonight, and he would commend this institution on its civic-mindedness. franklin was known as a projector, that is he loves social projects, and for him, as i hope to show you tonight,

knowledge is an activity exemplified by the programs you have here at town hall. but i do have to say one thing, i think he would probably frown at the roman revival architecture. [laughter] again, as i hope to make clear, franklin was an implacable foe of classical learning and felt that it was a real weight around the neck of middle class and aspiring workers who wanted to get educated, the notion they had to learn latin and greek just so they could then learn philosophy was anathema to him. i'm going to speak for about 35 minutes roughly, and i hope to allow a lot of time for questions. i've been told that this is an audience with a particular bent for discussion and questions, and so i welcome that. it's the best part of teaching when i teach at university. the only two parts i like are giving the lectures and interacting with the students. i'm not too keen on all the other stuff. [laughter] which is why i probably mostly write books. in any case, before i launch into an overview of the project,

i want to tell you a little bit about the history of this particular book. as you probably gathered from that very kind and detailed introduction, this is a new direction for me and it would be fair for you to be wondering where that direction came from. i'll tell you this much, that direction came from a footnote. i'm one of those readers, and i'm sure some of you are as well, who really like to read footnotes. not those footnotes that have citations and page number on the volume, but where an author really contributes something, recognizes that a fact or a point of discussion is worthy of inclusion but it somehow doesn't fit into their narrative. well, that's really rich material more me because i can come along and say, well, that's pretty cool, maybe i should look into that. so i was reading something completely unrelated to american history. it'll probably come as no surprise that it was a work of cultural criticism on the relationship between islamic world and the western world. in any case, it was a footnote, and it mentioned the role of these societies for useful

knowledge. and i thought, wow, that's something that i need to look into. and i did. and the actual reference was to the british institution. but as i started to explore the subject, i found that the very rich history here in america. and as i got more and more involved, the figure of benjamin franklin kept kind of encroaching on my thinking, and so i decided to look at this movement, as i call it, for useful knowledge through the eyes of franklin and use his life story to help tell the saga and the genesis, the development and the import of this movement for useful knowledge. this is not to say that i wrote a biography of benjamin franklin. i very deliberately did not. now, working in the library of congress can be a bit daunting because of the size of the collection, and if you go to the catalog or go online and put in beck min franklin title search, you get over 1,000 volumes. so i figured the market was

pretty saturated with benjamin franklin biographies. instead, it explores the roots of early american technology and science, and these are forces that steadily transformed this country first into an industrial superpower and only then into a geopolitical one. now, accounts of such inventiveness are the stuff of legend. we talk about the wright brothers, thomas edison, steve jobs, steve wozniak and, of course, we could add many others, henry ford, bill gates, local boy makes good comes into, comes to mind. and we often hear this phrase only in america, and it's often associated with these kind of figures. only in america could two bicycle mechanics launch an aviation industry and so forth. now, what's important here is that all of these figures share a number of key traits. well, one, they were largely or wholly self-taught. that is, they were not products

of formal education. as a result, they had freed themselves from the constraints of conventional wisdom and traditional authority. they preferred practical solutions to theoretical discussion. they were, in essence, engineers not mathematicians. in other words, they were supreme practitioners of what i mean by be useful knowledge. be -- now, attempts in general to explain america's technological prowess, i've found, generally revolve around the notion it is our political and social systems that provided the ideal platform for innovation and for the associated economic growth, prosperity and the pursuit of happiness. so in this view it was the new republic shaped by the founding fathers that set the stage for an explosion of innovation during the 19th and 20th centuries. an explosion that we can all agree continues to this day. key components of this success would include the creation of

liberal democracy, a laissez-faire approach to capitalism, the passage of strong patent law and other protections for intellectual property. yet i would argue that this is what is known as the history of the present. that is, it is a misreading of historical developments derived by working backward from today's america. and my overarching purpose in writing "the society for useful knowledge" is to propose a very different reading of american history. now, as i show in my book and as i can only really outline for you today, the american revolution represents less a turning point than a significant milestone in a journal that began not at lexington and concord in the spring of 1775, but in the steady circles -- study circles, public libraries and useful knowledge societies that took shape in colonial cities and towns almost 50 years

earlier. so long before there was a boston tea party or any other accelerate acts -- overt acts of defiance to imperial british rule, american practitioners of useful knowledge and the institutions they developed successfully challenged the social, the political and the intellectual order of the day. the accompanying knowledge revolution, which is epitomized by franklin and the circles, and his immediate circles beginning as early as the 1720s, freed the colonists of constraints imported and imposed from europe. and it was this knowledge revolution that laid the groundwork for american independence. so the central actors in my story, not surprisingly, are not the founding fathers per se, although a number of them do make cameo appearances. jefferson, of course, was very involved in science, washington and hamilton, among others, were members of the american philosophical society which

we'll talk about in a few minutes. and, of course, franklin straddled both the political and scientific worlds. rather, my focus is on an earlier cohort of cart -- artisans, craftersmen and independent farmers captivated by two ideas from the enlightenment and shaped by the american experience. so what were these? well, one, the value of learning and knowledge. that is what we would call information and data perhaps today is directly proportional to its practical import of utility. in other words, to be of any real value, knowledge has to be truly useful. and second, that anyone -- not just the high born, the well educated, those flume in lastedden and greek -- could take part in the pursuit of knowledge, the pursuit of science and the pursuit of knowledge in general. so what we really had here was this growing, budding movement that sort of gathered momentum

was a movement for useful knowledge was a challenge to traditional elites who maintained their elite status through an educational system that was relatively restrictive, particularly in europe. and colonial education was dominated by the same elite, and they wanted their sons -- it was only sons at the time who received higher education -- to have the mark of a real gentleman which meant latin and greek learning. franklin and his circle started to see things quite differently, and at one point he writes a letter to a young woman whom he's tutoring in natural philosophy or science, and he says what signifies philosophy that does not alie to some use? apply to some use? this is very much franklin's mantra and became kind of the slogan of the movement for useful knowledge. another aspect that's worth highlighting is that anyone could contribute. now, these ideas came out of england. francis bacon, john locke, david hume, among others, had proposed

a new way of doing science, one that allowed for not just the elites, but the petty merchant, the craftsman, even the unskilled or untrained laborer to contribute something meaningful to science. but it really was american conditions where we didn't have an entrenched system of ruling elites. we had elites borrowed who came across the ocean with the early colonists, but there was much more fluidity within the social system, and so as a result, there were commands from the bottom up for education and education that was truly useful. so if the american rebellion was at heart a knowledge revolution, as i argue, then who were the revolutionaries? so let's take a look at some of the leading figures in the early american movement for useful knowledge, all of whom appear as important characters in my book with. in my book. i'mi'm sorry, that's the wrong e

there. there we go. benjamin franklin. yes, of course, we'll talk about franklin in a few minutes in greater detail and his role in breaking through sort of knowledge barriers imposed by the europeans. but before that i want to introduce a few other figures who are perhaps less known. the farmer and botanist, john bartram. bartram was a quaker. he lived a little outside of philadelphia. he gradually got drawn into the intellectual life of philadelphia through franklin and his associates. we'll seek about him a bit more later. the glazier and mathematician thomas godfrey. godfrey was a member of franklin's inner circle, and he invented an improvement quadrant for navigation. interestingly, he sent this balloon off to london -- sent this plan off to london claiming credit for a new, improved method of navigation, and someone independently had

invented a very similar system and happened to be sitting on the board of the royal society which was then the main arbiter of science. you can guess what happened, who got the official credit. it was eventually sorted out, and godfrey has been recognized as a co-inventer of an improved adequate rant. eastbound needer -- ebeneezer inforwardsly. frankly had gone to bat for him. they'd failed, and so he was out of work and franklin suggested that he take the results of their electrical experiments, take them on the road as i tin rant lecturessers, and he eventually became the most successful lecturer in american colonial history traveling from the far north all the way down to the caribbean. now, these lectures were very important to the movement for useful knowledge because they gave access to the latest ideas and inventions, experiments and

hypotheses to a very broad audience that was not university trained. and it also highlighted the fact that knowledge was a personal, face-to-face experience. you would go to one of the electrical shows, and he would give you a few minutes' explanation about the latest thinking, about electricity, but the fun stuff was he would get out his apparatus, they would generate static electricity, people would touch the globe, their hair would stand on end. he would use electrified swords to set alcohol or other spirits on fire. it was all good show, but it's not just show. there were two very important aspects here. one was it was much more widely available to a broader audience, but even more importantly, 18th century science was very much connected with the boardly experience of knowledge -- bodily experience of knowledge. it was not in the theoretical realm. so it was very important to this practical knowledge movement, useful knowledge movement that

people could see or even experience for themselves the effects of these scientific phenomenon. and finally, instrument maker david ridden. haus. he built a very beautiful and complex planetarium. imagine a clock that not only tells you the time and the phases of the moon, but it purports to tell you the accurate position of all five visible planets for any given date forward in time by 5,000 years or backward in time by 5,000 years. it really was a wonder. and it did two things that were important. it got the attention of the europeans. this was an amazing feat, especially for a colonial, self-taught farmer's boy. but it also gave the founding fathers' generation a model of a universe that worked according to these newtonian laws. precision, you wound it up, you lifted the weight, and it ran on its own.

and this was very much an attractive political and social model that is we would set these rules for baer -- for behavior and society, like the universe, would just run on its own. now, i've left -- i put the dates of birth and death here for a reason. i want you to note how virtually all of them, franklin is a known case, unique case because he lived so long, but for the most part this generation predated, at least their formative and mature years, predated the american revolutionary project and the birth of the new republic. their numberings were largely devoted to ideas and inventions that would improve the quality of colonial life, overcome the numerous obstacles facing the community and expand its scientific horizons. franklin called these people be midling sorts. what's notable about these figures were, in fact, their

social origins. most were drawn from the urban craftsmen or artisans rather than from the ranks of gentlemen who typically held sway in the colonial towns and cities. now, collectively, they were known as mechanics. it's a world, of course, we tend to associate with car mechanics. but it has quite a rich history. and they came together to not only pursue science and knowledge in general, but also to advance their own social, economic and rate call interests. -- political interests. now, contemporary particularly british usage defined the mechanic as a practitioner of, quote, those arts wherein the hand and body are more concerned than the mind. and in england the term "mechanic" carried with it residual class prejudice. this was very much not the case here in the new world. there was a shortage of skilled labor in colonial america, so there were accompanying high wages, a general lack of restrictive regulations. for example, franklin's own

father had come from oxfordshire in england where he came from a long line of silk dyers, and that was his profession, and he was unable to change his profession within the guild system. but when he found coming to america dyeing of silk wasn't in demand, he became a candle and soap maker. and this was a pattern that's followed quite consistently where without restrictive guild regulations, people are much freer to pursue new interests, to develop new skills. and that, too, played into this notion that we can have practical knowledge that advances not only your own social position, but that of our society. so as a result, many of these master craftsmen or even a mechanic or even a lonely journeyman could aspire to become an independent entrepreneur with considerable economic security and companying social status and political influence. this movement was further buoyed

by -- particularly in new england with the puritans and even more so in and around philadelphia with a large quaker population. both sects put a premium on labor and particularly on the nobility of labor, the dignity of labor. and so working with one's hands producing something, laboring honestly was a social good that perhaps -- and carried connotations that it didn't always carry back this europe. in europe. so as i say, even the journeymen could hope to save funds to buy land and become an independent farmer or go into business himself. hence it is, wrote franklin, that artisans generally lived better and more easily in america than in europe and such as our good economists make a comfortable provision for age and for their children. in 1727 franklin and 11 others formed the leather apron club. now, the leather apron was worn by craftsmen and artisans, and a leather apron was a collective way of referring to this rising

class. and so they called themselves the leather apron club, but it was very quickly known simply as the junta, and the apron was, of course, the badge of honor for these members as mechanics. so i want to read to you a brief section from my book about the meetings of the junta. we're in philadelphia now, it's 1727 and the years immediately thereafter. franklin's own group, soon known simply as the junta, combined the con sieve y'allty of a private drinking club with the advantages of a mutual age society, the self-improvement of a discussion circle and the altruism of a civic association. members were restricted -- membership was restricted to 12, and proceedings were conducted in secret, all the better to advance the participants' projects, facilitate planning and pursue career or advancement. it also protected the junta,

argued franklin -- who, by the way, was the biggest proponent of secrecy here -- for awkward solicitation from friends and membership associates. gatherings were held at the indian king tavern on market street, one of the oldest drinking establishments integral to philadelphia's civic life. here, out-of-town visitors could find lodgings, and locals could hold meet, attend concerts or sample the latest news and gossip. the ma sonic lodge later held some of its first meetings at the indian king, and the final order to evacuate american forces and leave the town to the advancing british in september of 1777 was issued from the bar. but for now the junta met each week at the indian head to discuss personal and professional advancement of its members as well as the prevailing idiom of science or natural philosophy and the language of social improvement. quote: the rules that i drew up

require that every member in turn should produce one or more queries on any point of morals, politics or natural philosophy to be discussed by the company, recalls franklin. in addition, each participant was expected to deliver an original paper once every three months. now, franklin was a very organized person, as you may have guessed, and he wrote out what he called queries for the junta. the idea was before each meeting, each junta member was to wake up early in the morning and read this and then think about it throughout the day and, hopefully, that would spur something that he could contribute at the meeting. so have you met with anything the in the author you last read remarkable or suitable to be communicated to the junta. and is we see that the breadth of subjects, history, morality, poetry, physic -- which refers to medicine -- travels, mechanic arts or other parts of knowledge. do you think of anything at present in which the junta may

be serviceable to man kind? that's franklin's italics. to their country, to their friends or to themselves? this last question is quite interesting because while junta members were clearly interested in their advancement, knowledge and the pursuit of knowledge was seen as a civic good for the broader community. and so the emphasis on being of service to man kind was italicized for a reason. so franklin outlined this program, and he drafted in all two dozen queries or questions to guide discussion. but it wasn't all talk. he noticed -- he noted at one point we must, quote: pause while one might fill and drink a dallas of wine. after all, they were meeting in a tavern. in the summer months, members gathered outdoors for calisthenics, and franklin decreed their song should be hummed in consort by as many as

can hum it. over time, the junta emerged as a driving force in the civic life of philadelphia, and its prompts focused on the needs of fellow mechanics and practical solutions to mix economic and social problems facing this new class of americans. so the junta really was an incubator of practical solutions. let's look at some of them. paper currency. the provinces and pennsylvania in particular suffer from an acute shortage of paper currency. now, this was okay with the political elite because they were mostly creditors, and they were concerned paper money would devalue the value of their outstanding loans and interest payments. but for craftsmen, particularly, say, a silversmith or a watch maker or even a printer like franklin, they had to go into debt to buy supplies, so repaying these debts were very difficult. franklin wrote one of his best early papers advocating the creation of a paper currency. the idea that grew out of junta

discussions, he showed them drafts, they worked on them together, and now as the owner of a printing press he also could print those -- [laughter] which he did. and he won the day. eventually, the assembly did override the traditional interests of the elite. and not visingly, franklin benefited as well. it gave franklin and his printing press the contract to produce the currency for pennsylvania, and he vergeically extended his arrangements with new jersey. created the lightning rod so lightning and fire sparked by lightning were a real problem, particularly for people who did not live in great brick and stone houses that were department from their neighbors. so the junta created the basis for fire brigade and for fire insurance. they improved street lighting

and cleaning. franklin tweaked the design of the traditional philadelphia street light to make it more efficient be, burn brighter. the franklin stove, where did that come from? well, the junta was debating one day the two problems with contemporary heating technology. one is the high price of firewood, a problem we till know about today, and the pact that they all lived in very smoky houses. so the result was a high efficiency stove which we call the franklin stove, he called the pennsylvania stove. and he published the plans in his newspaper. significantly, i think, franklin never patented any of his invexes. -- inventions. and i note with interest there were recently some very important supreme court cases on intellectual property and whether a certain type of dna could be patented, and the court ruled that it could, but in the runup to the case the advocates were quoting all the founding fathers about the importance of intellectual property and, yes, there is quite a strong record in that regard.

but i think that argument overlooks that for franklin, for jefferson, for washington, for a lot of these people it was the social aspect of knowledge that was important, not the individual right it conferred on one inventer. these products that we associate, these developments including the lightning rod which we associate with franklin and it's fair enough to do, but these or were group everetts x. he knew that. the library company pulled the members' books into one collection so they could swap books and expand theirhorizons. but they found three problems, one is they all had the same book and, three, they were always running around chasing books. in fact, if you read the pennsylvania gazette of the day, there are often notices saying i lost my copy of john locke, i can't remember to whom i lent it. [laughter] so they decided to create a subscription library, and they

expanded thetic circle, and that laid the ground work for a number of subscription libraries mostly run by mechanics, some run by laborers, heavily influenced by quaker choices that -- in literature and in science the most popular books if you look at what the early catalog was were books on how to do basic mathematics, how to do sign terrific experiments. some of newton's simpler works if there is such a thing. i'll have the pleasure of speaking, however, both the library of philadelphia and the american philosophical science moved very slowly. and so while i am invited to present this book there, it will not be until march of 2014. [laughter] the junta was also upset, franklin in particular, that pennsylvania didn't have a

college or a university or even an institution of, an academy of any note. so they laid the groundwork for what became the university of pennsylvania. now, franklin's efforts on behalf of the university of pennsylvania in respects should be seen as a smashing success. it's one of the great institutions in this country. however, in franklin's mind it was a complete failure. why was that? franklin and the junta raised money, proposed that -- outlined a potential curriculum, developed a marking plan, secly, raised the money, and the main thrust of their argument at appeal is we are going to focus on practical knowledge; surveying, mathematics, engineering. latin and greek, we'll put them to one side. however, when the elite of philadelphia managed to take over the board of trustees, they overrode all of these plans. and so the english curriculum or

the english school, as it was called, was given second position and eventually almost phased out. and to his very dying day, franklin was extremely bitter about the way this program had been hijacked by what he called a cabal of the providences leading gentlemen. so here we have a love hi and not so widely known that's why i've included a picture of young franklin in a fireman's hat to protect the houses and assets of his fellow leather aprons. so let's look at the knowledge societies. the 8th century was very much an age -- 18th century was very much -- by the way, its full name is the royal society of london for the improvement of natural knowledge, was the primary model for the americans. the quaker family, john bartram, who i introduced earlier, together with franklin proposed the first american society in

1743. however, it took a number of decades for the idea to truly bear fruit. at one point franklin writes to a friend, the gentlemen are very idle, they will take no pains. now, john bartram blamed it up on propensity of his fellow members to sit in the t.a.r.p.es and play dice. now, the example set by philadelphia with its lively intellectual scene spurred a number of imitators, and eventually the movement would take home in washington which was now the new national capital, trenton, new jersey, albany, new york, alexandria, virginia, and as far south as carolina and montana and as far west as kentucky. improvements in agriculture, the study of natural history, there was even a military philosophy society founded at west point, these all appeared as well. these groups were invariably

local or regional in scope, and if you look at the names, they almost always have at least a town or city associated with them and often a province. it was very specific. so the early precursors to the american philosophical society went through a number of names, but it would include something like the philosophical society or the society for the advancement of useful knowledge or practical knowledge held in philadelphia in the province of pennsylvania. and from our perspective when you read this, it seems sort of silly. but in century thinking, knowledge and its pursuit was a personal, face-to-face experience. it had to be done locally. it had to be done through face to face connections, through lectures, you had to have members needed to live nearby so they could come to regular meetings. the this also had the advantage of giving a broad section of each of these commitments access to these localized groups. now, when it was impossible for everyone to get together, the

acknowledged movement organize toed very highly directive systems of correspondence, generally coordinated by a secretary or other function their to fill in the gaps. now, many of us will probably recall from our school days that franklin was postmaster. he wanted a pretty good salary, he wanted the social status, but most after owl in -- most of all in that day the recipient of mail paid postage, not the sender. but franklin could send letters and see them for free. so what did he want to do? as he lobbied very heavily and became postmaster, but one of the things he did then was to expand the reach of the postal system not just to expand the reach of colonial businessmen and corps responsibilities in general, but to expand his own reach within the scientific system that he was developing. but one of the greatest

obstacles facing these early american efforts was the entrenched european prejudice against colonial science. it was widely accepted at the time that the colonies would act merely as suppliers of raw material. so we have seeds of local plants. narrative accounts of small animals or diseases, the bones of unknown critters and so on for study and explanation by the natural philosophers back in the mother country. this information, then, would be sent back as science. so in this way scientific knowledge followed the same pathway as trade and basic commodities and their subsequent transfer into goods for sale back to the colonies. so think of iron ore. iron ore shipped out of virginia, goes back to england, eventually made into be steel and fabricated to steel implements which are then sold back to the pop colonies at a high markup.

>> there was a parallel knowledge economy. john bartram, as we'll see in a minute, was one of the leading suppliers. but the science was done in the mother country. so as i say, the career of john bartram really illustrates this phenomenon be, and it provides a breakthrough for what they later achieved. bartram was a taciturn farmer, as i mentioned, on a remote property outside philadelphia, and as he was drawn into the intellectual life of the junta, he eventually became quite a collector, he works for the swedish pot nist and even at one point for the british king. the london merchant and royal society member, peter coulson, served as bartram's main contact. at his direct, bartram traveled widely, often abandoning his

farming duties to fulfill colson's endless request. i want to read briefly from a chapter devoted to john bartram. >> by all counts, par tram did well. on an expedition to the cedar swamp in new jersey to collect pine cones for the duke of norfolk, bartram struggled against the elements. he writed in his journal. i climbed the trees in the rain and lopped off the boughs, then must stand up to my knees this snow to pluck off the cones. he devoted two weeks of pain saking effort to track down the rare -- [inaudible] only to have most of its acorns devoured. no request for was demanding or two daunting.

a hornet's nest. even live turtle eggs that collieson received just in time to see one hatch. for the most part, they were not particularly interested in what bartram might think or what firsthand experience might tell him. but only in what he could collect and themed back to europe for their study and analysis. in fact, he openly discouraged the american from engaging in scientific experimentation. remarks on them are very curious. but i think take up too much of thy time and thought. i would not make my correspondence burdensome but must desire you the continue the same selections once again. colinson is explicit it's only the opinion of the experts back

in europe that carry any weight. until the details of the plant could be examined by natural philosophers in london, in oxford, berlin or open saw la, quote, half a dozen by way of specimen will be sufficient. for though you call it white cedar, we are in tout what class it belongs to until we see the sea pods. colinson regularly forwarded some of bartram's samples to his expert colleagues and then returned these rulings to barframe for his own edification. quote, send more, colinson requested in a let letter in 1776.

now, by contrast franklin and his colleagues, known as the philadelphia electricians, forced the europeans to make room for american science. so let's take a look at what they did. they confirmed the unite of electricity and lightning. now, the notion that lightning in the sky and the electricity produced in the laboratory or in these lecture halls were one in the same had been kicking around for quite some time. and, in fact, the great french expert had noted that sparrows electrocuted in the lab if you cut them open and look at their inforwards re'em bl the inmars of a man who'd been struck by height anything. and there were also signs, the smell of sulfur was in the air. the sound of a lightning strike seemed to mimic in much greater volume the snap of electricity from a capacitor or other

device. but it was franklin and the americans who really made a breakthrough by coming with a practical means to verify this notion. they also advanced a plausible explanation of the lighting jar which was a simple capacitor filled with iron shot and then water and wired, and you could charge this with static electricity, it would hold a charge, and then you could release out for experimental purposes or to shock your neighbors, your friends, your guests at a lecture. they invented and named the battery which was, essentially, stringing together a series of lighted jars. they distinguished between negative and positive be electrical charge. and they set the stage for the development of the lightning rod. now, in 1753 the royal society of london awarded franklin its highest honor known as the copley medal. this is, essentially, a nobel

prize for science. unlike bartram and other north american naturalists woz works could be -- whose works could be absorbed seamlessly, franklin and his fellow electricians produced a true achievement in basic science, one that's featured a revolutionary theory to explain observations derived from experimentation. this think says brook kendall who noted the most important scientific contribution made by an american was in the colonial period. now, the adulation of the royal society marked a quick reversal of fortune for franklin and colonial science. the initial reaction to the work of the philadelphia electricians had been dismissive. and their subsequent findings were, quote, laughed at by the connoisseurs. i mentioned nolet. his theories were seriously undermined by franklin's

approach x he refused to believe his eyes. he was overwhelmed by the absurdity there could even be an american scientist, and he recalled this so-called benjamin franklin guy was a creation of his own jealous rivals in england. i have a lovely picture here, portrait by benjamin west, showing just how important in the popular imagination franklin's work on the lightning rod was, and here he is with cherubs and angels protecting man kind from the valvages of lightning. franklin's experiments were carried out around the world. there's a lovely japanese wood cutting that i found in the collection of the department of justice. this is what's known as the century box experiment. it was actually franklin's first proposal, and it was carried out in europe before franklin got a chance to try it out, and it did successfully demonstrate the unite of lightning and lek

terrorist. franklin also excelled on the elaborate and coordinated exchange of information with colleagues across europe and throughout the colonies, what we today would call social networking. over time, he established himself as the chief representative of science with all significant flows of information running through his hands. .. >> he's trying to get the french to come around with more money and military support, and adams

is sent there furious. what's franklin doing? he's sleeping late. he's eating enormous meals, drinking wine, going to dinner, flirting with all the rich women. adams is just -- you got to be doing something. what he didn't understand what was franklin was, in fact, performing a very effective diplomatic act. how? well, he was already a scientist of enormous reputation in france, and now he coupled that with an examples of an american stage, a wise man, and it carried enormous weight with leaders of french public opinion and eventually with the court, but it deeply upset adams who wrote to his wife, i believe it was, when it's over, people say the his rhode-- history of the american revolution was the lightning rod and the sword, and basically meant no one remembers adams. [laughter]

>> the electricians put them on the map, and the contributions to observations made sure it stayed there. astronomers knew in 1761 and in 1769 the planet, venus, could be seen to traverse of the face of the sun, a rare phenomena used to help determine the absolute size of the universe. effectively, discrepancies in the observed time of the transit so as that little black dot moves across the fund, you measure the transit time from different locales and measure out the so-called solar paralex to get an estimation of the earth's distance from the sun. for the newly mill soft call society, the society they dreamed up in 1743, by this time, took root, and begun to function, and in the 1769 transit of venus on june 6th

provided an ideal opportunity to rally around the venture of global importance. it's members well aware that successful observations and production of accurate data could secure the americans the respect of the skeptical europeans. successful efforts by the philosophical society, primarily at the farm outside philadelphia to observe rerecord the transit seal the position of premier knowledge association. in fact, they proved to be among the most accurate of any one taken worldwide. the kings' astronomer said, quote, i thank you for the account of the pennsylvania observation seems excellent and complete in due honor in the gentleman who made them. the collaborators ushered in a true knowledge revolution, one that proceeded the political rebellion against the british

colonial masters in which up ended the established economy of knowledge. the ideas later found in the declaration of independence, and any other founding documents of the republic, and, in fact, that involves the same figures. i'd like to conclude now tonight with a brief reading from the first chapter called "the age of franklin." while the useful knowledge society played no direct role in the enterprise, it gave expression to the widespread ideas and attitudes that informed first, the colonial rebellion, and then the creation of a new nation and a new society. one need glance at the interest, experience, and attitudes among the declaration of independence and the founding fathers, franklin, jefferson, rush, adams, madison, hamilton, and charles carol among them to recognize how deeply such notions went to the heart of the

american revolution. in the letter to adams in 1816, jefferson summed up the prevailing setments of the revolutionary generation, quote, we are destined to be a barrier against returns of ignorance and barberrism. old europe leans on our shoulders and hobbles along our side under the monkish trams of priests and kings as she can. with the final political break, with great britain, america was free to shake off the inept meddling of priests and kings and to realize the implicit dream of the natural order. that is one of harmony and reason that had been perverted by the imperfect europe. they left the citizens of the new nation facing an uncertain future. the constitutions of old europe, lacking in capital and manpower, without great libraries or

universities, and cut off from traditional markets by lingering hostility with the threat of naval block aid, the free states had little recourse other than self- reliance and practical study. the society for useful knowledge in collaborators and successors and ingenious men of the former colonies pointed the way to an american future. thank you. [applause] we have 20 minutes for questions so if you would come up to this microphone, keep the question in the form of a question after which dr. lyons will sign copies of the book, also for sale across the lobby. >> in addition to the website and e-mail, i have business cards if you want to stop by,

leading to the website, talking about the use of knowledge and other books as well. thank you. questions, please. [background sounds] >> was he also successful in a financial sense? how did he rank, say, with washington with the founding fathers who were bill gates and paul allen of our day? >> okay, thank you. washington married into the money; right? franklin was extremely successful, and it's

interesting. the main source, and as i mentioned before, there's many, many biographies of franklin, and he's a challenge for the historian, for the analysts, for the cultural commentators, for the rest of us because he left behind an up finished but his autobiography. that was written in three to four distinct stages. the latest scholarly edition edited by yale university, and even its editors admit, quote, it's not notably accurate. franklin had different motivations, and yet it is the basis for almost all biographies, and, you know, it is a real problem, teasing out franklin from the franklinments you to know. if you look at the stages in which he wrote it, you can see he had different motivations than mine written over 20-30 years, and he wrote it for the son, which is what he say, and he, a guide to living well,

doing the moral thing, to the quest for moral perfection, and over time, he's a world figure, and, you know, world figures leave memoirs and tell the stories, and the story shifts in tone and recommendation steer and is one of success. it leaves out a lot of very uncomfortable facts about franklin, and teasing out the real franklin is complicated, but i have an my answer to your question. franklin was a businessman and did not patent inventions, he realized that the way, perhaps a academic today might write a book that will not sell well and make a lot of money, but it's part of the package of being a successful epidemic, not something i would do, of course. [laughter] all these things to his benefit. he was a social benefactor, he was president of the board of trustees even the though they didn't follow the directions or didn't approve of the program

that he advocated. he was extremely successful as a businessman, and these came together and you create an ora of success and become more successful. he worked extremely hard, ha number of early setbacks, but he became very quickly one of the most successful printers in the colonies, and then he started parceling out -- would buy pieces of newspapers, create, by land, and harvest trees, paper produced, and he had paper making interests, owned pieces of newspapers in the caribbean and elsewhere. franklin made so much money by 1746 he could say, okay, i'm done. he brought in a partner. he was a silent partner himself, and for a stipend, he gave the business over to david hall, and franklin writes to a friend in new york state, also a would-be scientist, says i'm going to

devote my life to science and all interesting pursuits which i couldn't afford to do before. he was sidetracked by politics, as we know, and deeply involved in representing the colonies in the british court. there's evidence he hoped that he would replace the penn family at the head of the province of pennsylvania, that pennsylvania would be transformed into a royal colony and a king would appoint him governor general. some critics and scholars suggest when that didn't happen, that's when he became a fire brand republican. [laughter] it's remarkable he was late to the republican party, as it were, but when he joined, he joined -- jumped in with both feet and one of the most radical members of the generation, and had we today the franklinnist constitution rather than the constitution we have, we would have a one-term executive who is unpaid, a unicameral

legislature, and many other innovations, which the province of pennsylvania had and needed after the revolution, but it was rolled back. yes, he was a good businessman. he turned a profit when he could. he saw success tied up with social success, and i think that gets back to his notion you don't patent things that you developed. he didn't see them -- there was a controversial, i think, during the last election, wasn't there, when obama, i think it was, suggested that people who get ahead in society are drawing from other sources other than their own individual -- that caused controversy, but franklin would agree 100%. at the same time, he was very quick to make a buck and very good at it, and so he died a very wealthy man. yes, sir? >> can you draw any parallels between the society of useful knowledge and its later developments? you mentioned eddison with the

big industrial push for the new inventions. >> oh, absolutely. in fact, this is a theme i develop in a lot of detail in the society for useful knowledge, especially in the latter chapters, that it was really, well, franklin was a projector, forming lots of society, and the last great pojt society was the project, the society for political inquiries, which was formed very late in life, and one of the members of the society was a gentleman named cox. he was a figure, he was a royalist in philadelphia, and when the brits came in he thought, okay, he's on the winning side, but that didn't work out, as we know, and he stayed a step ahead of the law, largely because he had high social connections with people who maintained good rengses with the revolutionary generation, but also because he was so useful and particularly as a publicist and economist, and so he started writing papers for

madison and adams, jefferson, and he was too useful to throw in jail as a possible -- as a royalist sympathizer, and they let it go, but franklin endorsed him heavily. cox was interesting because he was the first of this sort of circle to see the connection between useful practical applications and the development of american history. it was an idea for jefferson, but for hamilton, in particular, who was cox's great patron, this is really the beginning of an american machine age, and so i would argue that -- what i tried to lay out at the very beginning, by talking about it, mentioning it in the other examples is that they are the direct outgrowth, the direct beneficiaries of the movement for useful knowledge about getting things done. how did eddison invent the lightbulb? he tried every material me would think of. that's not theoretical science.

that's -- what is that? that's perseverance. you know, that's dumb luck, or not, or the deep pockets to do it, got lucky, or a hundred other reasons. that's not science, but practical. he tried different filaments, got one that worked, and then had the lightbulb. that does not diminish his achievement, but puts it in context. the land grant university in the late mid 19th century really, was, again, an expression of america's affinity for practical solutions and practical knowledge opposed to theoretical science, and what's also interesting is that in this earliest period in the late to mid-18th century, americans are interested in practical applications of electricity, so it's applied to medical therapy. it's applied to even to psychological problems. it's applied to things without any recourse to theory, but at the same time, the europeans are trying to take this practical

knowledge out of the salon, out of the hands of the electrician, out of hands of the practitioner putting it in the university, in the laboratory and control it. knowledge goes from a widespread special phenomena in europe much earlier into a tunnel visioned kind of institutional experience. for many, many years earlier than it does in america, which, really, you don't have the rise of the scientific societies many, many later. yes, i draw a straight line from the 17 # 27 and eddison all the way up through gates and beyond. thank you. yes, ma'am? >> first of all, thank you. that was engrossing. >> thank you. >> i came in temperature minutes late, and so maybe you mentioned why it's called that, and -- >> i didn't, and i don't know

hoppestly. it's an explanation or definition of a small circular, secretive group. in fact, there's an interesting element. in the history, there's 12 members, franklin and 11 others, and the other 11 were lobbying for expanding it. they wanted this model to be expanded, and now, frankly was against that saying, okay, here's what you do, any member can go out, recruit 11 # other members and have your own. [laughter] you won't share that membership with the original, so if you think about it, that's -- way is that? that's the model that the russian revolutionaries used in the 19th century, that the revolutionaries used in latin america, the cell system, and why he insisted being secretive, i don't know -- >> actually, that was the next question. as you glance on the necessary aspect of franklin and this, and i was curious why someone who wanted to deseminate useful knowledge had this secretive thing? it didn't sound like he was

protecting privilege or elitism, so what was the investment? maybe, like you said, you don't know. >> i don't know the origin, but i can tell you that, again, franklin being practice call felt it was the most effective way to achieve things, but evidence is when they came out with the idea for paper currency, a study of the population growth of the colonies, development of street lighting, fire brigades, insurance, these were shared widely, and, of course, the library system, and eventually the university of pennsylvania are socially available institutions that grew out of the secrecy, and so i have to just say it must have been instrumental rather than fundamental to their understanding of how to get things done. yes, sir? >> i had two questions. one was, dune anything about the roots of the democratic and republican parties in the country? the other thing was, what is the franklin institute do today?

>> well, of course, what we call the republican party is much later than the period that i am working, but if you read the histories of the time, there were notions of republican factions and what might be called -- there's the jefer sewnian and hamiltonians, and the debate debate is the nature of the future society they were creating. jefferson, for most of his political life, though there's a lot of evidence towards the end of his life, with the war of 1812, realized that, perhaps, this was not possible, but his idea notion was the public of farmers without a great deal of foreign trade, no debt, no real industrialization, the notion america was so big it could keep expanding, become -- run itself as an agricultural society to sell surplus food and bring in whatever imports needed for its own requirements, and that was it. hamilton with the lieutenant at his side pushes for the rapid

centralization of america, very much along the british model so it competes with the other nations, england and france and spain, in particular, and so hamilton's basic program was pay off the debt from the war, which was crippling, create a centralized currency in a central bank, industrialize, develop trade treaties, and engauge with the world, and jefferson had an escapist vision, but jefferson became president, and as presidents tend to do, they see the world differently after they've been in office awhile, and the war of 1812, in particular, sharpened the focus and wrote to a friend, and if i can find it, i will, but he says that, you know, thanks tots brits, just like say ton pulled adam and eve from par dies, the british pulled us from our idol, and now we have to become a modern society. you will see jeffersonian and

hamiltonian and republicans and democrats, those are not the parties we associate with those terms today. second question, sorry? >> curious what the franklin institute does today. >> mostly educational, but the american philosophical society growing out directly from franklin's proposal of 1743, and i go into detail about how the association came together, setbacks and triumphs is very much active as a knowledge society today, very prestigous, a great library collection, sponsor scholars, sponsor symposium and lecture series, very active, and, in fact, it's interesting. if you read the official history of the american philosophical society, they date their own finding to the 17 # 43 proposal by franklin which was to get these talented people of the

colonies together into a society. it didn't really is not that simple, and so when i go there in march, i'll have to straighten them out a little bit. [laughter] sir? >> franklin let the geneny out of the president -- bottle with knowledge and captured hundred years after that by capital and by university, and along came the internet, and everybody has knowledge, one of the biggest things in the world today, and would franklin, in your opinion, be for that knowledge being spread to everybody? >> oh, absolutely, and that's a good observation. as i mentioned in response to this gentleman's question a few minutes ago, just as the americans were kind of trying to test the limits of this knowledge and apply this new science of electricity broadly without a theoretical framer, the europeans were doing the opposite. it was capital. it was institutions. it was universities and

laboratories. there's often this era referred to as the age of wander, and there's a famous and popular book by that title. the problem with the notion is that while this was happening, the age of wander was ending very quickly in europe, and science and knowledge were being exactly pushed into the bottle to was control knowledge, and the cohorts were liberating knowledge, and to the extent that internet liberates knowledge, and we are seeing limitations now, but early knowledge, he would have been a hundred percent supportive. >> [inaudible] >> sorry? >> any subject, and before, that was limited to a very elite group. >> oh, absolutely, largely because any advanced teaching was done in the ease -- languages, latin and greek. he would rather have a recipe

for parmesan cheese than any italian script in latin or anything like that. he was opposed to the notion that knowledge should be restricted, and the device, if you will, was the use of latin and greek, and fought hard for the english school program at the university of pennsylvania. yes, sir, i think you were next. this is the last question, i'm told. make it a good one. make it a good one. >> here comes. do you think the -- our think tanks and land grant institutions are agenting like franklin was dealing with? >> well, i think the land grant institutions are wonderful innovations so the rest of us can all go to university, so, yes, it's a direct outgrowth of the kind of knowledge pursuit they were engaged in. francis bacon, hundred years

earlier, had a notion that anyone can do science, you just need an observant mind, discipline, and set the people out, and says, you know, a laborer can clear the brush. what's that mean? take away some of the work that would otherwise fall to the budding professional scientist, and everyone can play. of course that's the notion of the system, suspect it? that everyone gets a chance. absolutely they are supportive of that whereas i think this movement had some less or slightly more effects is de-emphasis in the american popular culture, if not the broader, completely -- the broader culture against the un-- negating the value or devaluing theory, pure science, for example. i, for example, majored in russian in the 1970s, and before that, i thought i was going to major in greek and latin, but in

any case -- [laughter] ben would have been so ashamed, but in any cation, i majored in russian, and the question i got most often is, what are you going to do with that? i went to college in 1970s, the cold war was booming, a lot of things i could do, and i eventually did them, but the point is the common question one gets today is unless you are studying for something specific like engineers. liberal arts, i teach in the liberal arts aspect divisions of universities, and the crisis is how do we get liberal arts students? when the book took shape, i thought there would be some notion against some of these developments, by as i engaged with it, it was fundamental to who we were as americans, and this was the directions i took, and it was a journey, and this is where it took me. i want to thank you once again. [applause] >> for more information, visit

the author's website, jonathanlyonsportfolio.org.

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