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In ""Benjamin Franklin's Printing Network"", Ralph Frasca explores
Franklin's partnerships and business relationships with printers
and their impact on the early American press. Besides analyzing the
structure of the network, Frasca addresses two equally important
questions: How did Franklin establish this informal group? And what
were his motivations for doing so? This network grew to be the most
prominent and geographically extensive of the early American
printing organizations, lasting from the 1720s until the 1790s.
Stretching from New England to the West Indies, it comprised more
than two dozen members, including such memorable characters as the
Job-like James Parker, the cunning Francis Childs, the malcontent
Benjamin Mecom, the vengeful Benjamin Franklin Bache, the steadfast
David Hall, and the deranged Anthony Armbruster. Franklin's network
altered practices in both the European and American colonial
printing trades by providing capital and political influence to set
up workers as partners and associates. As an economic entity and a
source of mutual support, the network was integral to the success
of many eighteenth-century printers, as well as to the development
of American journalism. Frasca argues that Franklin's principal
motivation in establishing the network was his altruistic desire to
assist Americans in their efforts to be virtuous. Using a variety
of sources, Frasca shows that Franklin viewed virtuousness as a
path to personal happiness and social utility. Franklin intended
for his network of printers to teach virtue and encourage its
adoption. The network would disseminate his moral truths to a mass
audience, and this would in turn further his own political,
economic, and moral ambitions. By exploring Franklin's printing
network and addressing these questions, this work fills a
substantial void in the historical treatment of Franklin's life.
Amateur historians and professional scholars alike will welcome
Frasca's clear and capable treatment of this subject.
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