The Way to Wealth
The first American book on personal finance, "The Way to Wealth" by Benjamin Franklin
As the 21st Century charges along and the current economic climate continues to send out mixed messages, Franklin's simple but wise commentary on the value of industry and frugality resonates as much for us today as it did for listeners nearly 350 years ago. Here is a sample:
- "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."
- "If you would be wealthy, think of saving, as well as of getting."
- "If you would have your business done, go; if not, send."
- "Think what you do when you run into debt; you give to another power over your liberty."
- "Creditors have better memories than debtors."
Although older than the United States itself, "The Way to Wealth" is still very popular. It is handed out by major companies and financial institutions to friends, clients, and customers and is the January, 2004 selection of "The Washington Post's" the Color of Money Book Club. As Michelle Singletary, director of the Club wrote in a column about The book, "At just 30 pages, this pocket-size book takes less than an hour to read but will give you a lifetime of financial wisdom--that is if you're wise enough to follow the advice."
Author: Benjamin Franklin
Hardcover: 30 pages
Company: Applewood Books (1986-09-01)
ISBN: 0918222885
List Price: $9.95
Amazon Price: $5.15
Used Price: $5.59
Source: www.amazon.com
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
Benjamin Franklin, writes journalist and biographer Walter Isaacson, was that rare Founding Father who would sooner wink at a passer-by than sit still for a formal portrait. What's more, Isaacson relates in this fluent and entertaining biography, the revolutionary leader represents a political tradition that has been all but forgotten today, one that prizes pragmatism over moralism, religious tolerance over fundamentalist rigidity, and social mobility over class privilege. That broadly democratic sensibility allowed Franklin his contradictions, as Isaacson shows. Though a man of lofty principles, Franklin wasn't shy of using sex to sell the newspapers he edited and published; though far from frivolous, he liked his toys and his mortal pleasures; and though he sometimes gave off a simpleton image, he was a shrewd and even crafty politician. Isaacson doesn't shy from enumerating Franklin's occasional peccadilloes and shortcomings, in keeping with the iconoclastic nature of our time--none of which, however, stops him from considering Benjamin Franklin "the most accomplished American of his age," and one of the most admirable of any era. And here's one bit of proof: as a young man, Ben Franklin regularly went without food in order to buy books. His example, as always, is a good one--and this is just the book to buy with the proceeds from the grocery budget. --Gregory McNamee
Author: Walter Isaacson
Paperback: 608 pages
Company: Simon & Schuster (2004-05-04)
ISBN: 074325807X
List Price: $18.00
Amazon Price: $6.21
Used Price: $4.75
Source: www.amazon.com
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Dover Thrift Editions)
Author: Benjamin Franklin
Paperback: 144 pages
Company: Dover Publications (1996-06-07)
ISBN: 0486290735
List Price: $2.50
Amazon Price: $0.38
Used Price: $0.01
Source: www.amazon.com
The Prosperity Bible: The Greatest Writings of All Time On The Secrets To Wealth And Prosperity
In a beautiful, durable volume suited to a lifetime of use, here is the all-in-one "bible" on how to harness the creative powers of your mind to achieve a life of prosperity-packaged in a handsome display box with a ribbon bookmark.
The Prosperity Bible is a one-of-a-kind resource that collects the greatest moneymaking secrets of authors from every field-religion, finance, philosophy, and self-help-and makes them available in an attractive, keepsake edition. This is a book to treasure and return to again and again for guidance, ideas, know-how, and inspiration.
Here is the only single volume where you can read success advice from Napoleon Hill, P. T. Barnum, Benjamin Franklin, Charles Fillmore, Wallace D. Wattles, Florence Scovel Shinn, and Ernest Holmes-along with a bevy of million-copy- selling writers who have one key element in common: a commitment to understanding and promulgating the laws of winning.
These are the beloved teachers and writers who created the idea of a mental formula for success. Their principles, comprehensively collected in nineteen selected writings, have been proved in the experience of millions of men and women who have cherished their works from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Now they are enshrined in this all-in-one treasury-complete in a handsome display box with a ribbon bookmark.
Author: Napoleon Hill, Wallace D. Wattles, James Allen, P. T. Barnum, Benjamin Franklin, Ernest Holmes, Charles F. Haanel, Robert Collier, Florence Scovel Shinn, Elbert Hubbard, Russell Conwell, Charles Fillmore, Ralph Waldo Trine, William Walker Atkinson, F. W. Sears
Hardcover: 1280 pages
Company: Tarcher (2007-11-08)
ISBN: 1585426148
List Price: $35.00
Amazon Price: $13.41
Used Price: $10.99
Source: www.amazon.com
Patriot Pirates: The Privateer War for Freedom and Fortune in the American Revolution
They were legalized pirates empowered by the Continental Congress to raid and plunder, at their own considerable risk, as much enemy trade as they could successfully haul back to America’s shores; they played a central role in American’s struggle for independence and later turned their seafaring talents to the slave trade; embodying the conflict between enterprise and morality central to the American psyche.
In Patriot Pirates, Robert H. Patton, grandson of the battlefield genius of World War II, writes that during America’s Revolutionary War, what began in 1775 as a New England fad--converting civilian vessels to fast-sailing warships, and defying the Royal Navy’s overwhelming firepower to snatch its merchant shipping--became a massive seaborne insurgency that ravaged the British economy and helped to win America’s independence. More than two thousand privately owned warships were commissioned by Congress to prey on enemy transports, seize them by force, and sell the cargoes for prize money to be divided among the privateer’s officers, crewmen, and owners.
Patton writes how privateering engaged all levels of Revolutionary life, from the dockyards to the assembly halls; how it gave rise to an often cutthroat network of agents who sold captured goods and sparked wild speculation in purchased shares in privateer ventures, enabling sailors to make more money in a month than they might otherwise earn in a year.
As one naval historian has observed, “The great battles of the American Revolution were fought on land, but independence was won at sea.”
Benjamin Franklin, then serving at his diplomatic post in Paris, secretly encouraged the sale of captured goods in France, a calculated violation of neutrality agreements between France and Britain, in the hopes that the two countries would come to blows and help take the pressure off American fighters.
Patton writes about those whose aggressive speculation in privateering promoted the war effort: Robert Morris--a financier of the Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, member of the Continental Congress who helped to fund George Washington’s army, later tried (and acquitted) for corruption when his deals with foreign merchants and privateers came to light, and emerged from the war as one of America’s wealthiest men . . . William Bingham… John R. Livingston--scion of a well-connected New York family who made no apologies for exploiting the war for profit, calling it “a means of making my fortune.” He worried that peace would break out too soon. (“If it takes place without a proper warning,” said Livingston, “it may ruin us.”) Vast fortunes made through privateering survive to this day, among them those of the Peabodys, Cabots, and Lowell's of Massachusetts, and the Derbys and Browns of Rhode Island.
A revelation of America’s War of Independence, a sweeping tale of maritime rebel-entrepreneurs bent on personal profit as well as national freedom.
Author: Robert H. Patton
Hardcover: 320 pages
Company: Pantheon (2008-05-20) (2008-05-20)
ISBN: 0375422846
List Price: $26.00
Amazon Price: $13.00
Used Price: $11.99
Source: www.amazon.com
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
"The first book to belong permanently to literature. It created a man."-- From the Introduction
Few men could compare to Benjamin Franklin. Virtually self-taught, he excelled as an athlete, a man of letters, a printer, a scientist, a wit, an inventor, an editor, and a writer, and he was probably the most successful diplomat in American history. David Hume hailed him as the first great philosopher and great man of letters in the New World.
Written initially to guide his son, Franklin's autobiography is a lively, spellbinding account of his unique and eventful life. Stylistically his best work, it has become a classic in world literature, one to inspire and delight readers everywhere.
Author: Benjamin Franklin
Paperback: 160 pages
Company: Touchstone (2003-12-23)
ISBN: 0743255062
List Price: $10.95
Amazon Price: $3.84
Used Price: $3.76
Source: www.amazon.com
Tags: history, Constitution, Washington
Comments