Benjamin Franklins Last Bet, Michael Meyer
Benjamin Franklins Last Bet, Michael Meyer
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Benjamin Franklin's Last Bet
The Favorite Founder's Divisive Death, Enduring Afterlife, and Blueprint for American Prosperity

Author: Michael Meyer

Narrator: Donald Corren

Unabridged: 10 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 04/12/2022

Synopsis

The incredible story of Benjamin Franklin’s parting gift to the working-class people of Boston and Philadelphia—a deathbed wager that captures the Founder’s American Dream and his lessons for our current, conflicted age.Benjamin Franklin was not a gambling man. But at the end of his illustrious life, the Founder allowed himself a final wager on the survival of the United States: a gift of two thousand pounds to Boston and Philadelphia, to be lent out to tradesmen over the next two centuries to jump-start their careers. Each loan would be repaid with interest over ten years. If all went according to Franklin’s inventive scheme, the accrued final payout in 1991 would be a windfall. In Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet, Michael Meyer traces the evolution of these twin funds as they age alongside America itself, bankrolling woodworkers and silversmiths, trade schools and space races. Over time, Franklin’s wager was misused, neglected, and contested—but never wholly extinguished. With charm and inquisitive flair, Meyer shows how Franklin’s stake in the “leather-apron” class remains in play to this day, and offers an inspiring blueprint for prosperity in our modern era of growing wealth disparity and social divisions.

About Michael Meyer

MICHAEL MEYER is the author of three critically acclaimed books, as well as articles in the New York Times and other outlets. A Fulbright scholar, Guggenheim, NEH, Cullman Center and MacDowell fellow, and the recipient of the Whiting Writers Award, Meyer is a Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh, where he teaches nonfiction writing. He lives in Pittsburgh.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Len on April 17, 2025

David McCullough, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Truman and John Adams died almost three years ago and, with his death, the throne of king of American historians was empty. A few superb writers have been considered the heirs to the top prize but no proclamation has been made. After reading Benjami......more

Goodreads review by Marty on October 14, 2022

This book would be fine as a first book on Franklin, because the author starts from not knowing much about him, and touches meaningfully on every fundamental facet of Franklin that I can think of. He goes on to cover his topic very well. Most Franklin fans are not particularly interested in what hap......more

Goodreads review by Paul on June 11, 2023

I liked this book; it has an interesting yet niche subject. Even if you already knew about Franklin's bequest, there was a lot of stuff to learn. In some ways I find myself with contradictory desires — I think this book could have way less detail, or it could have way more detail. There was a bunch......more

Goodreads review by John on March 24, 2023

This was a pleasant surprise - I checked it out with my mess of Ben Franklin books, not really paying attention to it specifically. Then, when it turned out to not really be a Ben Franklin biography, I was going to return it. But I started reading it and got caught up in it right away. I also rememb......more

Goodreads review by Brian on December 28, 2022

All I knew about Franklin's gift after he died was (I thought...incorrectly it turns out) that he gave Philadelphia some money to sit in a bank account and accumulate interest until 200 years later when the city could pull it out and marvel at the wonders of compound interest. The truth is much more......more

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