Jill Lepore’s Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin

Guest: Jill Lepore

While Ben Franklin is heralded as one of the nation’s founding fathers and a central figure in the history of Philadelphia, less is known about other members of his family. Historian JILL LEPORE is the author of a new book about Franklin’s sister Jane, the youngest of seventeen children. While her older brother Ben travelled the world, Jane never left Boston and the two wrote to each other devotedly for over 60 years. According to Lepore, “she loved no one better.” In this hour of Radio Times, we’ll hear about the bond between the Franklin siblings and what their correspondence tell us about life for women in the Age of Revolution in Boston.