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October 6, 2022 by

Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet

Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet

$21.99

Categories: History, Nonfiction
  • Description

Description

Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet by Michael Meyer

The incredible story of Benjamin Franklin’s parting gift to the working-class people of Boston and Philadelphia—a deathbed wager that captures the Founder’s American Dream and his lessons for our current, conflicted age

Benjamin Franklin was not a gambling man. But at the end of his illustrious life, the Founder allowed himself a final wager on the survival of the United States: a gift of two thousand pounds to Boston and Philadelphia, to be lent out to tradesmen over the next two centuries to jump‑start their careers. Each loan would be repaid with interest over ten years. If all went according to Franklin’s inventive scheme, the accrued final payout in 1991 would be a windfall. 

In Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet, Michael Meyer traces the evolution of these twin funds as they age alongside America itself, bankrolling woodworkers and silversmiths, trade schools and space races. Over time, Franklin’s wager was misused, neglected, and contested—but never wholly extinguished. With charm and inquisitive flair, Meyer shows how Franklin’s stake in the “leather-apron” class remains in play to this day, and offers an inspiring blueprint for prosperity in our modern era of growing wealth disparity and social divisions.

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‘Books and Wine’

July’s book club pick, Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. Join us July 8th at 5:30 pm.

 

All Aboard… for Murder?!
A Killer Evening Awaits at Bay Books
July 17th | 6:00 PM | Bay Books, Suttons Bay, MI

Calling all amateur sleuths, book lovers, and armchair detectives—Bay Books is pulling into the station with a night full of secrets, suspense, and shocking reveals.

 

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