What are critics saying about the book?

“So far the reviews have been very positive. Publisher’s Weekly called it 'a fresh look at Franklin and his contemporaries.' ”

There are lots of books about Benjamin Franklin. How is yours different?

“My book focuses on Franklin’s larger circle of friends and associates, rather than only on him.”

Who were the “visionary friends”?

“These people all had ideas about how the future was to be better than the past and they all acted on that idea. They include Americans like Thomas Paine and Benjamin Rush, Englishmen like Richard Price and Joseph Priestley, and Frenchmen like the Marquis de Condorcet and Jean-Paul Marat. There are actually 12 of them.”

That’s a pretty diverse group. What did they have in common?

“They are all intriguing characters, and sometimes they are fascinatingly bizarre. Take Franz-Anton Mesmer (from whose name we derive the verb “to mesmerize”). As a physician trained in Vienna and practicing in Paris, he believed he could cure people of mental and physical disorders by stupefying them while they hung onto iron rods from his bathtub filled with water or by touching them with his wand or hand while they listened to the eerie music played on the glassarmonica (an invention, by the way, of Ben Franklin).”

As a scholar, what do you find most intriguing about Franklin?

“He has to be one of the most accomplished and fascinating Americans who have ever lived. His interests and achievements were far-ranging and diverse, including business, journalism, science, invention, politics and diplomacy. The incredible thing is that he did them all to the point of excellence!”

Has your research on Franklin affected your teaching?

“All of my research ends up in the classroom. I always bring up Tom Paine and Ben Franklin (and of course the other founding fathers) in my Constitutional law courses.”