Benjamin Franklin's Last Bet: The Favorite Founder's Divisive Death, Enduring...

Description: 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.

Price: 12.99 USD

Location: Carmel, Indiana

End Time: 2025-01-10T12:09:08.000Z

Shipping Cost: 3.99 USD

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Item must be returned within: 30 Days

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Type: book

Brand: Zondervan Publishing House (COR)

Book Title: Benjamin Franklin's Last Bet : The Favorite Founder's Divisive Death, Enduring Afterlife, and Blueprint for American Prosperity

Number of Pages: 368 Pages

Language: English

Publisher: HarperCollins

Publication Year: 2022

Item Height: 1.2 in

Topic: United States / 20th Century, United States / 19th Century, Strategic Planning

Illustrator: Yes

Genre: Business & Economics, History

Item Weight: 18.1 Oz

Author: Michael Meyer

Item Length: 9 in

Item Width: 6 in

Format: Hardcover