Benjamin Franklin--The First American

Benjamin Franklin was one of the most important representatives in the American Colonial Period and a key figure to the American studies. As a great Enlightenment philosopher, a scientist, a politician and a Deist, he deserved the title-the First American.First the author concentrates on Franklin's religious beliefs. The author believes that Franklin was a transitional figure from Puritanism to Enlightenment and that he showed his Puritan inheritance all through his life. The three leading New England Puritan exponents, John Winthrop, Jonathan Edwards, and Benjamin Franklin represented the embryo and the decline of Puritanism in New England. Then, through the comparison of Franklin and Thomas Paine, the author expatiates the significant role Franklin played in the "Age of Reason". In the last chapter, Franklin as a scientist and a social welfare worker is expounded and his overall significance in American culture is emphasized again.