Stealing Gods Thunder, Philip Dray
Stealing Gods Thunder, Philip Dray
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Stealing God's Thunder
Benjamin Franklin's Lightning Rod and the Invention of America

Author: Philip Dray

Narrator: David Chandler

Unabridged: 9 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 03/11/2008

Synopsis

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.

About 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; There Is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America; and Capitol Men: The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through the Lives of the First Black Congressmen. He is an adjunct professor in the Journalism + Design Department at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Abby on June 01, 2016

This is one of the best biographies I've read, along with Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo, and Columbus: The Four Voyages. I'm just assuming these books are historically accurate. But this one added quite a bi......more

Goodreads review by Arthur on November 22, 2012

A recently published book may be of some interest to the intellectual property community. "Stealing God's Thunder" details the history of Benjamin Franklin's invention of the lightning rod, and goes on to sketch Ben's role in the invention of the United States' system of government. In a few places,......more

Goodreads review by Wayland on June 08, 2015

A very well researched and entertainly written biography of Benjamin Franklin. I've always been interested in the American Revolution and the various leaders involved. This covers Franklin's life from his early days in Boston, settling in Philadelphia, and his time in England and France. It's not a h......more

Goodreads review by Susan on June 28, 2014

Maybe I should be careful about giving so many books five stars, but when I love it, I love it. This is about Benjamin Franklin as a scientist and inventor, particularly his invention of the lightning rod, but that invention is depicted (convincingly) as a symbol of the Enlightenment. So many natura......more

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