Benjamin Franklin and the Ends of Empire is an important book. It is engaging, thoughtful, and thought-provoking. Methodologically, it breaks new ground as a 'literary biography.' It helps to rehabilitate Franklin as a serious thinker on society, politics, and empire
Carla J. Mulford has published widely in the field of early American studies, but Benjamin Franklin has been her preoccupation for over twenty-five years. She has published over twenty articles and book chapters on Franklin, in addition to The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Franklin (Cambridge UP, 2009) and Benjamin Franklin and the Ends of Empire (Oxford UP, 2015). She is currently working on a new book, tentatively titled Benjamin Franklin's Electrical Diplomacy. Professor of English at Penn State University, she is the Founding President of the Society of Early Americanists.