The Book Prize Index

The First Scientific American: Benjamin Franklin and the Pursuit of Genius

Joyce Chaplin

"In this biography of America's most brilliant and cosmopolitan Founding Father, Joyce Chaplin considers all of Franklin's work in the sciences. Franklin was the first American whose "genius" for science qualified him as a genius in political affairs. It is only through grasping Franklin's full engagement with the sciences that we can understand this great Founder and the world he shaped."--Jacket.

BiographyBiography · high confidenceBiography81 signalsLlm Classifier: Biography -> BiographyOpen Library: Scientists -- United States -- Biography -> BiographyOpen Library: Statesmen -- United States -- Biography -> BiographyScience & Discovery

Award History

0 wins · 1 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and TechnologyMajor2006FinalistSecondary source
View all award history (1)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    • Benjamin Franklin86%

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    Joyce Chaplin argues that grasping Benjamin Franklin’s full engagement with the sciences is necessary to understand him as a political founder and the world he shaped.

    Model confidence 74%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    38 / 100 academic

    Serious trade

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 78%.