Benjamin Franklin exists in the perhiphery of the founding of the USA, never a central figure. His influence is recognized with his unusual place on the $100 bill. When he died, he tried to change the future through a curious set of bequests that played Boston and Philadelphia against each other.

In Benjamin’s Franklin’s Last Bet Michael Meyer follows the money and it weaves together biographical and social themes in surprisingly entertaining ways. Franklin’s hot takes were the tweets of that era and the interplay of personalities in letters and papers make history seem relevant and vital.

Trying to change the world, in death, is also the topic of the documentary The Art of the Steal which also concerns Philadelphia. Here the contrast between the two cities handling of the bequests becomes interesting for what it says about class in the United States.

Franklin is the subject of countless biographies, but he was a man a bit too holographic to capture on paper. This book’s narrow focus seems to somehow catch more in the periphery of his life and had left me even more curious.