The Printer and the Preacher

Ben Franklin, George Whitefield, and the Surprising Friendship that Invented America

By: Randy Petersen

Narrated by: Van Tracy

They were the most famous men in America. They came from separate countries, followed different philosophies, and led dissimilar lives. But they were fast friends. No two people did more to shape America in the mid-1700s.

Benjamin Franklin was the American prototype: hard-working, inventive, practical, funny, with humble manners and lofty dreams. George Whitefield was the most popular preacher in an era of great piety, whose outdoor preaching across the colonies was heard by thousands, all of whom were told, “You must be born again.” People became excited about God. They began reading the Bible and supporting charities. When Whitefield died in 1770, on a preaching tour in New Hampshire, he had built a spiritual foundation for a new nation—just as his surviving friend, Ben Franklin, had built its social foundation. Together these two men helped establish a new nation founded on liberty. This is the story of their amazing friendship.

Appendixes are included in the audiobook companion PDF download.

The relationship between Whitfield and Franklin is very intriguing

While the concept and content has such incredible potential to be an interesting book, the author often interjects the story with their own opinion. The book is less of a narrative and more of a compare and contrast style.
It seems like the author did a lot of research and has a lot of interesting thoughts. The writing style is not super high quality.

Missed opportunities

The narration is jerky to the point of distraction, with sketchy pronunciation of British place names and some of the rarer vocabulary words used by the author. The book itself was like a high school student's compare and contrast paper. Wherever there was an opportunity for the author to show the story of Franklin and Whitfield instead of just telling about it, he bypassed it in favor of analysis and speculation. As someone who loves history in large part for the narrative potential it holds, I was extremely disappointed in this book.