Benjamin Franklin And His Enemies Summary

Robert Middlekauff is an intriguing historian from UC Berkeley that shares a part of history with people via his writings and lectures. In the book Benjamin Franklin and His Enemies, Robert Middlekauff does a stunning job in introducing the hectic life Benjamin Franklin. Robert Middlekauff being an amazing researcher and historian, he leaves out no nuances about Benjamin Franklin, not even the emotions. Throughout the book, Robert Middlekauff sets the setting and location allowing the reader to form a detailed image while reading the book. Robert Middlekauff explains that Benjamin Franklin was a well-spirited man with a darker side. Throughout this book, the darker side of Benjamin Franklin is unveiled through the friends and enemies he makes.

John Adams was quite fond of Benjamin Franklin. As time passed this friendship began to deteriorate because John Adams and Benjamin Franklin had not only different diplomatic styles, but also different lifestyles. Consequently, John Adams started to suspected Benjamin Franklin as being disloyal. This disloyalty resulted from Benjamin Franklin keeping information from John Adams about the mediation the Spanish took to end the war. John Adams was dramatically affected by Benjamin Franklin withholding this information because he was deeply passionate about this finding a solution to end the war. Angered by Benjamin Franklin’s actions, John Adams broke off any sort of communication with Benjamin Franklin by leaving Paris. The quarreling continued when John Adam arrived in Amsterdam, and Franklin confessed his disapproval for John Adams’s methods of dealing with foreign powers. The relationship between John Adams and Benjamin Franklin was not terrible because the day before the Preliminary treaty was signed Adams brought himself to praise Benjamin Franklin. Finally, On January 1783 the conflicts subsided with the signing of the Preliminary Articles of Peace. Britain, France, and Spain were finally at peace with one another. Life was great for John Adams until the death of Benjamin Franklin, which occurred in the year 1790. Robert Middlekauff reveals that he knew John Adams distrusted him, but what he did not know was the amount of hatred John Adams had towards