In this authoritative and engrossing full-scale biography, Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Einstein and Steve Jobs, shows how the most fascinating of America's founders helped define our national character.Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us, the one who seems made of flesh rather than marble. In a sweeping narrative that follows Franklin’s life from Boston to Philadelphia to London and Paris and back, Walter Isaacson chronicles the adventures of the runaway apprentice who became, over the course of his eighty-four-year life, America’s best writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat, and business strategist, as well as one of its most practical and ingenious political leaders. He explores the wit behind Poor Richard’s Almanac and the wisdom behind the Declaration of Independence, the new nation’s alliance with France, the treaty that ended the Revolution, and the compromises that created a near-perfect Constitution.In this colorful and intimate narrative, Isaacson provides the full sweep of Franklin’s amazing life, showing how he helped to forge the American national identity and why he has a particular resonance in the twenty-first century.

NOW A MAJOR SERIES 'GENIUS' ON NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, PRODUCED BY RON HOWARD AND STARRING GEOFFREY RUSHEinstein is the great icon of our age: the kindly refugee from oppression whose wild halo of hair, twinkling eyes, engaging humanity and extraordinary brilliance made his face a symbol and his name a synonym for genius. He was a rebel and nonconformist from boyhood days. His character, creativity and imagination were related, and they drove both his life and his science. In this marvellously clear and accessible narrative, Walter Isaacson explains how his mind worked and the mysteries of the universe that he discovered. Einstein's success came from questioning conventional wisdom and marvelling at mysteries that struck others as mundane. This led him to embrace a worldview based on respect for free spirits and free individuals. All of which helped make Einstein into a rebel but with a reverence for the harmony of nature, one with just the right blend of imagination and wisdom to transform our understanding of the universe. This new biography, the first since all of Einstein's papers have become available, is the fullest picture yet of one of the key figures of the twentieth century. This is the first full biography of Albert Einstein since all of his papers have become available -- a fully realised portrait of this extraordinary human being, and great genius.Praise for EINSTEIN by Walter Isaacson:- 'YOU REALLY MUST READ THIS.' Sunday Times 'As pithy as Einstein himself.’ New Scientist ‘[A] brilliant biography, rich with newly available archival material.’ Literary Review ‘Beautifully written, it renders the physics understandable.’ Sunday Telegraph ‘Isaacson is excellent at explaining the science. ' Daily Express

'To read this magnificent biography of Leonardo da Vinci is to take a tour through the life and works of one of the most extraordinary human beings of all time in the company of the most engaging, informed, and insightful guide imaginable. Walter Isaacson is at once a true scholar and a spellbinding writer. And what a wealth of lessons there are to be learned in these pages.' David McCullough Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson weaves a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy. He produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. But in his own mind, he was just as much a man of science and technology. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. His ability to stand at the crossroads of the humanities and the sciences, made iconic by his drawing of Vitruvian Man, made him history’s most creative genius. His creativity, like that of other great innovators, came from having wide-ranging passions. He peeled flesh off the faces of cadavers, drew the muscles that move the lips, and then painted history’s most memorable smile. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea, and produced illusions of changing perspectives in The Last Supper. Isaacson also describes how Leonardo’s lifelong enthusiasm for staging theatrical productions informed his paintings and inventions. Leonardo’s delight at combining diverse passions remains the ultimate recipe for creativity. So, too, does his ease at being a bit of a misfit: illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and at times heretical. His life should remind us of the importance of instilling, both in ourselves and our children, not just received knowledge but a willingness to question it—to be imaginative and, like talented misfits and rebels in any era, to think different.

Following his blockbuster biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson’s New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed The Innovators is a “riveting, propulsive, and at times deeply moving” (The Atlantic) story of the people who created the computer and the internet.What were the talents that allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their visionary ideas into disruptive realities? What led to their creative leaps? Why did some succeed and others fail? The Innovators is a masterly saga of collaborative genius destined to be the standard history of the digital revolution—and an indispensable guide to how innovation really happens. Isaacson begins the adventure with Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron’s daughter, who pioneered computer programming in the 1840s. He explores the fascinating personalities that created our current digital revolution, such as Vannevar Bush, Alan Turing, John von Neumann, J.C.R. Licklider, Doug Engelbart, Robert Noyce, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Tim Berners-Lee, and Larry Page. This is the story of how their minds worked and what made them so inventive. It’s also a narrative of how their ability to collaborate and master the art of teamwork made them even more creative. For an era that seeks to foster innovation, creativity, and teamwork, The Innovators is “a sweeping and surprisingly tenderhearted history of the digital age” (The New York Times).

A captivating blend of personal biography and public drama, The Wise Men introduces the original best and brightest, leaders whose outsized personalities and actions brought order to postwar chaos: Averell Harriman, the freewheeling diplomat and Roosevelt's special envoy to Churchill and Stalin; Dean Acheson, the secretary of state who was more responsible for the Truman Doctrine than Truman and for the Marshall Plan than General Marshall; George Kennan, self-cast outsider and intellectual darling of the Washington elite; Robert Lovett, assistant secretary of war, undersecretary of state, and secretary of defense throughout the formative years of the Cold War; John McCloy, one of the nation's most influential private citizens; and Charles Bohlen, adroit diplomat and ambassador to the Soviet Union.

By the time Henry Kissinger was made secretary of state in 1973, he had become, according to the Gallup Poll, the most admired person in America and one of the most unlikely celebrities ever to capture the world's imagination. Yet Kissinger was also reviled by large segments of the American public, ranging from liberal intellectuals to conservative activists. Kissinger explores the relationship between this complex man's personality and the foreign policy he pursued. Drawing on extensive interviews with Kissinger as well as 150 other sources, including U.S. presidents and his business clients, this first full-length biography makes use of many of Kissinger's private papers and classified memos to tell his uniquely American story. The result is an intimate narrative, filled with surprising revelations, that takes this grandly colorful statesman from his childhood as a persecuted Jew in Nazi Germany, through his tortured relationship with Richard Nixon, to his later years as a globe-trotting business consultant.

What are the roots of creativity? What makes for great leadership? How do influential people end up rippling the surface of history? In this collection of essays, the author reflects on the lessons to be learned from Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton, and various other interesting characters he has chronicled as a biographer and journalist. The people he writes about have an awesome intelligence, in most cases, but that is not the secret of their success. They had qualities that were even more rare, such as imagination and true curiosity. He reflects on how he became a writer, the lessons he learned from various people he met, and the challenges he sees for journalism in the digital age. He also offers loving tributes to his hometown of New Orleans, which both before and after Hurricane Katrina offered many of the ingredients for a creative culture, and to the Louisiana novelist Walker Percy, who was an early mentor. He describes the joys of the "so-called writing life" and the way that tales about the lives of fascinating people can enlighten our own lives.

“Though we cannot learn leadership, we can learn from leaders, which is why this volume is so engaging and valuable.”—Boston Globe What made FDR a more successful leader during the Depression crisis than Hoover? Why was Eisenhower more effective as supreme commander at war than he was as president? Who was Pauli Murray and why was she a pivotal figure in the civil rights movement? Find the answers to these questions and more in essays by great historians including Sean Wilentz, Alan Brinkley, Annette Gordon-Reed, Jean Strouse, Frances FitzGerald, and others. Entertaining and insightful individually, taken together the essays address the enduring ingredients of leadership, the focus of an introduction by Walter Isaacson.

This is the century that split the atom, probed the psyche, spliced genes, and cloned a sheep. Plastic, the silicon chip, and rock-and-roll were invented. Airplanes, rockets, satellites, televisions, computers, and atom bombs were built. Traditional ideas about logic, language, learning, mathematics, economics, and even space and time were overthrown and radically refashioned. This book presents the most influential leaders, artists, intellects, and heroes who shaped this monumental era, selected by the editors of Time magazine and their profiles crafted by some of the era's finest writers.--From publisher description.

Presenting pearls of wisdom on wealth from Benjamin Franklin. Franklin compiled and self-published his own venerated advice and proverbs on personal finance from Poor Richard’s Almanack. Since its appearance as a pamphlet in 1758, it has been reprinted and translated countless times. This new edition includes not only his counsel on financial planning, investment, prudence, and retirement strategies, but also essays and annotations about the legendary American entrepreneur himself. Additionally, it features facsimile pages of the original typed text, with adjacent pages providing modern translations for a 21st century audience. With an insightful foreword by renowned Franklin biographer Walter Isaacson and luxurious packaging, The Way to Wealth serves as both an inspirational keepsake and a clever guide to economic success.

"Albert Einstein is synonymous with genius. From his remarkable theory of relativity and the famous equation E=mc2, to his concept of a unified field theory, no one else has contributed as much to science in the last 150 years. Published to commemorate the centenary of Einstein developing his theory of general relativity, Einstein : the Life of a Genius reveals the man behind the science, from his early years and experiments in Germany and his struggle to find work, to his marriages and children, his role in the development of the atomic bomb and his work for civil rights groups in the United States. Drawing on personal memorabilia belonging to Einstein, this book also includes reproductions of documents that reveal more than this scientist's groundbreaking theories"--Page 4 of cover.

This exclusive boxed set from beloved New York Times bestselling author Walter Isaacson features his definitive biographies: Steve Jobs, Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, and Leonardo da Vinci. “If anybody in America understands genius, it’s Walter Isaacson.” —SalonCelebrated historian, journalist, and bestselling author Walter Isaacson’s biography collection of geniuses now available in one boxed set—the perfect gift for history lovers everywhere. Steve Jobs: The “enthralling” (The New Yorker) worldwide bestselling biography of legendary Apple cofounder Steve Jobs. The story of the roller-coaster life and intense creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. Isaacson’s portrait touched millions of readers. Einstein: How did his mind work? What made him a genius? Isaacson’s biography of Albert Einstein—also the basis for the ten-part National Geographic series starring Geoffrey Rush—shows how Einstein’s scientific imagination sprang from the rebellious nature of his personality. His fascinating story is a testament to the connection between creativity and freedom. Benjamin Franklin: In this colorful and intimate narrative, Isaacson provides the full sweep of Ben Franklin’s amazing life, showing how the most fascinating Founding Father helped forge the American national identity. Leonardo da Vinci: History’s consummate innovator and most creative thinker. Isaacson illustrates how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy.

Presents both sides of the arguments concerning controversial topics, such as the draft, gun control, abortion, religious cults, television, and smoking

Written by bestselling author Walter Isaacson, Einsten is an introduction to, and celebration of, the scientist whose name is synonymous with ingenuity and intelligence. From his remarkable theory of relativity and the famous equation E=mc2 to his concept of a unified field theory, no one has contributed as much to science in the last century as Albert Einstein. Drawing on new research and reproducing documents only recently made available, Einstein reveals the process behind the work and the man behind the science: his early years and experiments in Germany, his marriages and children, his role in the development of the atomic bomb, and his involvement with civil rights groups in the United States.Now in a new format

This long-overdue monograph presents an astonishing panorama of portraits by American photographer William Coupon (born 1952). With his camera, the photographer was given unprecedented access to artists, musicians and politicians such as Elie Wiesel, Mick Jagger, Jean-Michel Basquiat, George Harrison, Miles Davis with his daughter, David Byrne and many others. He photographed these people against a backdrop of hand-painted Belgian linen, side-lit by a single fixture, with a medium-format camera, producing painterly portraits that recall Rembrandt and Holbein. Coupon has diverged little from this method over the years, whether shooting the president in the Oval Office or indigenous people. Looking through these images , we see the range of personalities and faces, known and unknown, that has caught Coupon's eye from 1978 to the present.

New Orleans & The World: 1718-2018 Tricentennial Anthology [Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, Richard Campanella, Walter Isaacson, Lawrence Powell, Sally Reeves, Nancy Dixon]

The bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs returns with a gripping account of how Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues launched a revolution that will allow us to cure diseases, fend off viruses, and have healthier babies.When Jennifer Doudna was in sixth grade, she came home one day to find that her dad had left a paperback titled The Double Helix on her bed. She put it aside, thinking it was one of those detective tales she loved. When she read it on a rainy Saturday, she discovered she was right, in a way. As she sped through the pages, she became enthralled by the intense drama behind the competition to discover the code of life. Even though her high school counselor told her girls didn’t become scientists, she decided she would. Driven by a passion to understand how nature works and to turn discoveries into inventions, she would help to make what the book’s author, James Watson, told her was the most important biological advance since his co-discovery of the structure of DNA. She and her collaborators turned ​a curiosity ​of nature into an invention that will transform the human race: an easy-to-use tool that can edit DNA. Known as CRISPR, it opened a brave new world of medical miracles and moral questions. The development of CRISPR and the race to create vaccines for coronavirus will hasten our transition to the next great innovation revolution. The past half-century has been a digital age, based on the microchip, computer, and internet. Now we are entering a life-science revolution. Children who study digital coding will be joined by those who study genetic code. Should we use our new evolution-hacking powers to make us less susceptible to viruses? What a wonderful boon that would be! And what about preventing depression? Hmmm…Should we allow parents, if they can afford it, to enhance the height or muscles or IQ of their kids? After helping to discover CRISPR, Doudna became a leader in wrestling with these moral issues and, with her collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier, won the Nobel Prize in 2020. Her story is a thrilling detective tale that involves the most profound wonders of nature, from the origins of life to the future of our species.

'This is a riveting book, with as much to say about the transformation of modern life in the information age as about its supernaturally gifted and driven subject' - Telegraph Based on more than forty interviews with Steve Jobs conducted over two years - as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues - this is the acclaimed, internationally bestselling biography of the ultimate icon of inventiveness. Walter Isaacson tells the story of the rollercoaster life and searingly intense personality of creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies,music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written, nor even the right to read it before it was published. He put nothing off limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted.