Lunar Society: Was Benjamin Franklin “the Father of the Industrial Revolution”?

 

In this exclusive talk on Feb 18, 2021 to The Lunar Society of England, historian and author Anton Chaitkin presented evidence that Benjamin Franklin, the American scientist and statesman, mentored and inspired the startling advancements that transformed British industry. He then organized America’s preparations for its own world-leading industrialization.

Chaitkin says: “Franklin was a happy man, because he so successfully encouraged genius and compassion. We see it with his brilliant English friends, the inventors and developers in the Eighteenth Century Lunar Society. We see it with his American circle, who won U.S. independence; and with his protégés and heirs, who modernized their own and other countries, over the opposition of slaveowners and imperialists.”