The third edition of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, with Related DocumentsThe Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, with Related Documents continues to encourage students to think about the work's lasting impact on American society and culture. Louis P. Masur’s introduction is designed to make Franklin accessible and inviting to students. An expanded Related Documents section provides a sample of Franklin’s voluminous writings. Two new documents reveal Franklin at his curious, inventive best, offering readers a glimpse of Franklin outside of the Autobiography. A new visual source pairing invites students to interpret Franklin’s changing image over time, through the works of two different artists. A chronology, questions for consideration, a bibliographic essay, and an index enrich students’ understanding of Franklin, eighteenth-century America, and the rags-to-riches ideal that has played, and continues to play, such a significant role in American history.
Benjamin Franklin was an important conservative figure in the American Restoration Movement, especially as the leading antebellum conservative in the northern United States branch of the movement. He is notable as the early and lifelong mentor of Daniel Sommer, whose support of the 1889 Sand Creek Declaration set in motion events which led to the formal division of the Churches of Christ from the Disciples of Christ in 1906.
According to contemporary biographies "His early religious training was according to the Methodist faith, though he never belonged to any church until he united with the Disciples."
In 1856, Franklin began to publish the ultra-conservative American Christian Review, which he published until his death in 1878. Its influence, initially considerable, was said to have waned following the American Civil War. Franklin undertook a rigorous program of publication correspondence, and traveling lectures which took him to "many" U. S. states and Canada.
Franklin's last move was to Anderson, Indiana, where he lived from 1864 until his death.
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