Abstract
Academic writing on Benjamin Franklin has recently burgeoned into what some have called "Franklin studies," with two volumes of scholarly essays (one published, another on the way) and monographs focusing on his contributions to science, philosophy, and letters, among other subjects. Because of a strange twist of fate, Bruce Yenawine's useful and interesting contribution both predates and comes at the crest of this rising wave. Just published in Pickering & Chatto's Financial History series, it is an edited but not significantly updated version of his 1995 dissertation, completed two years before his death.