Review: A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France and the Birth of America
In “A Great Improvisation,” Stacy Schiff gives the answer. She provides an impressively researched, fine-grained account of Franklin’s Paris years, and his critically important mission to secure French support and French money for the rebellious colonies. Later, after the tide had turned in America’s favor, he was responsible, along with John Jay and John Adams, for negotiating the treaty with Britain that would turn the American experiment into an established international fact.
This was a tall order for a man, already in his 70s, with only a rudimentary command of French, no legal training, and no financial expertise. Yet Franklin muddled through, despite malicious attacks on two fronts, from his colleagues in Paris and from critics in the Continental Congress.
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