Triumphs in Paris: The Exploits of Benjamin Franklin

x, 420 pp. "Triumph in Paris tells the story of the man who took the American Revolution to Europe and kept it alive there. In 1776, Franklin -- diplomat, lover, scientist, writer and bon vivant extraordinaire -- postponed his long-overdue retirement and, at age seventy, went to Paris to negotiate America's first foreign alliance and secure the arms, men and money that made our independence possible."