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Ben’s Book Club: ‘A World on Fire’ by Amanda Foreman

Please note this is a past event. View upcoming events and all past virtual talks here. 

Join us for the November installment of Ben’s Book Club, a monthly virtual gathering looking at themes ​related to Benjamin Franklin, the 18th ​century, and American ​history.

This month we will be talking to Dr Amanda Foreman about her brilliant narrative, ‘A World on Fire’, in which she tells the fascinating story of the American Civil War–and the major role played by Britain and its citizens in that epic struggle.

Between 1861 and 1865, thousands of British citizens volunteered for service on both sides of the Civil War. From the first cannon blasts on Fort Sumter to Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, they served as officers and infantrymen, sailors and nurses, blockade runners and spies. Through personal letters, diaries, and journals, Foreman introduces characters both humble and grand, while crafting a panoramic yet intimate view of the war on the front lines, in the prison camps, and in the great cities of both the Union and the Confederacy. In the drawing rooms of London and the offices of Washington, on muddy fields and aboard packed ships, Foreman reveals the decisions made, the beliefs held and contested, and the personal triumphs and sacrifices that ultimately led to the reunification of America.

‘A World on Fire’ was the winner of the Fletcher Pratt Award for Civil War History, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and was selected for the New York Times Top Ten Books of 2011. Amanda Foreman is also the author of the best-selling ‘Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire’. In 2016, Foreman served as chair of The Man Booker Prize. That same year, her BBC documentary series, ‘The Ascent of Woman’, was released. Currently, she is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal bi-weekly ‘Historically Speaking’ and an Honorary Research Senior Fellow in the History Department at the University of Liverpool. Her next book, ‘The World Made by Women’, is scheduled to be published by Penguin Random House in 2021.

You can buy ‘A World on Fire’ here.

Join us even if you don’t have a chance to read the book by the event date!

This event is free of charge but please consider making an online donation here to support the work of Benjamin Franklin House.

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(SOLD OUT) Open House London, Saturday 19 & Sunday 20 September

Open House London is the capital’s largest annual festival of architecture and design. This annual event allows the public to cross the threshold of some of London’s most interesting buildings, including Grade I, 1730s Benjamin Franklin House. Half-hourly guided tours will take place throughout the day.

Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September, 11.00am-4.30pm

Free – half-hourly tours run on a first come first served basis. Advance booking required.

Register here 

Donations welcome

Rules for a safe visit

All visitors will be required to wear masks while in the House except:

  • Children under 11
  • People with disabilities
  • Those with breathing difficulties
  • Anyone travelling with someone who relies on lip reading

Tour groups are limited to 4 people from separate households in line with social distancing measures.

Please refrain from touching public surfaces while in the House

Please do not enter the House if you feel unwell

Our staff is available should you need any assistance

For more information email info@benjaminfranklinhouse.org

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Virtual Talk: American Sheet Music at the British Library

Although once disregarded by historians as sentimental and ephemeral, today American sheet music is valued for the unique light it sheds upon the nation’s concerns and aspirations. In this talk, Eccles Centre for American Studies librarian Jean Petrovic will share items held at the British Library. She will consider how this music moved ‘from the sacred to the secular and from the timeless to the timely’ and will explore how songs associated with World War I and the movement for female suffrage captured, reflected – and possibly even shaped – the cultural and political zeitgeist.

Image: Marie Zimmerman, Votes for Women. Suffrage Rallying Song. Philadelphia: E.M. Zimmerman, 1915. British Library shelfmark: H.3992.r.(18)

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Virtual Talk: Benjamin Franklin and Black Lives Matter

Benjamin Franklin was born at a time when the abhorrent practice of slaveholding was common.  He was initially accepting of owning slaves, and came to London with two black servants, Peter and King, who became free on arrival in Britain.  His years on Craven Street led to a fundamental transformation. House Director, Dr. Márcia Balisciano, will explain how Franklin became the American founder who campaigned against slavery, spending his last days as the President of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery.

This event was free to attend but we would ask attendees to consider making a voluntary donation here to support Benjamin Franklin House continue to share Franklin’s story as we begin to reopen to the public.

Watch the full talk and Q&A here:

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American Independence Day Tours

Join us for a special reopening celebration of Independence Day at Benjamin Franklin House and enjoy a tour of the world’s only remaining Franklin home!

As a founder of the United States, Franklin was the only statesman to have signed all four documents that created a new nation, including The Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Paris, and The Constitution. The first of these was signed on 4 July 1776.

Buy your tickets here.

Tours times are:

Saturday July 4th: 2pm and 3pm

Sunday July 5th: 2pm and 3pm

To ensure we keep everyone safe:

  • We are limiting group sizes to 4 people from separate households. If your group has more than 4 people from your household, please contact us at info@benjaminfranklinhouse.org or +44 207 839 2006 to arrange your booking
  • All staff and visitors (excluding those exempt under current UK government guidance) will be required to wear a mask inside the House – on entry, visitors will find a station with hand sanitiser, masks, and gloves
  • Our staff will be regularly cleaning the public areas throughout the days we are open to the public to ensure a safe environment

We look forward to welcoming you again to Benjamin Franklin’s only surviving home in fulfilment of our mission to bring history and innovation to life!

Benjamin Franklin House Team

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We’ve Reopened!

We are excited to announce that following new UK government guidelines on museums and galleries, Benjamin Franklin House will be reopening to the public with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

In celebration of American Independence Day, we will offer Architectural Tours from 2-4pm on 4 and 5 July.  Please make a booking for this special celebration here.

Following, we will be open Friday-Sunday, 12-5 for Architectural Tours from Friday, 10 July.  We hope to begin running our primary offering, the Historical Experience, before the close of summer.

Please make a booking for Architectural Tours here.

Changes to ensure the safety of visitors and staff

To ensure we keep everyone safe:

  • We are limiting group sizes to 4 people from separate households. If your group has more than 4 people from your household, please contact us at info@benjaminfranklinhouse.org or +44 207 839 2006 to arrange your booking
  • All staff and visitors (excluding those exempt under current UK government guidance) will be required to wear a mask inside the House – on entry, visitors will find a station with hand sanitiser, masks, and gloves
  • Our staff will be regularly cleaning the public areas throughout the days we are open to the public to ensure a safe environment

We look forward to welcoming you again to Benjamin Franklin’s only surviving home in fulfilment of our mission to bring history and innovation to life!

Benjamin Franklin House Team

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Virtual Talk – True Grid: François-Marc-Louis Naville and his moral tables

“The days flow by. I feel myself dragged about by time as if by a torrent. A decrease in energy and health, though possibly only temporary, makes me nevertheless fear for an early death. I feel deeply that there is nothing more to be desired than what pertains to eternity, that I should not waste a moment of time, that I should hurry to fulfill at least part of my task.”

Harro Maas, professor in history and methodology of economics at the Centre Walras-Pareto for the history of economic and political thought at the University of Lausanne,  will use these words from the diary of François-Marc-Louis Naville, a turn-of-the nineteenth-century Genevese pastor and pedagogical innovator, as a cue to examine his use of Benjamin Franklin’s tools of moral calculation and a lesser known tool, Marc-Antoine Jullien’s moral thermometer, to improve his moral character. He will situate Naville’s use of these tools within the Swiss pedagogical reform movement of Pestalozzi and others in the early nineteenth century and will examine in detail how Naville used and adapted Franklin and Jullien’s tools of moral accounting for his own moral and religious purposes. We will see that God’s most precious gift to man, Time, provided Naville the ultimate measure of his moral worth.

Watch the full talk and Q&A here:

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Virtual Talk: Fuelling Democracy – Ben Franklin and Coffee Houses

Join us for a talk on how Benjamin Franklin used the stimulating environment of coffee houses to help shape his early political ideals by our Operations Manager, Caitlin Hoffman. These public and social establishments were centres of the 18th century Enlightenment and provided a foundation of early American politics.

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Virtual Talk: The Rise of the Private Banker in Franklin’s London

Dr Perry Gauci, Tutor in Modern History at Lincoln College, Oxford University, will speak on the development of the banking profession in mid-Georgian London. In common with many of his fellow London residents, Franklin benefited from the increasing availability of specialist banking services, and this talk will examine the social and cultural impact of the private bankers, several of whom were located close to Craven Street. Both in their business and their sociability, the bankers were a dynamic force, and acted as key intermediaries within metropolitan society.

Image: Ben Franklin’s Wallet on display at Benjamin Franklin House

Full talk and Q&A below:

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Virtual Talk: The value of being luckily wrong

There is only so much we understand. There is only so much we make sense of in advance. Are we spending too much time trying to be right, and too little time simply maximising our chances of getting lucky?

Join Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK and Board Member of Benjamin Franklin House, for this fascinating talk.

Watch the full talk and Q&A below: