Ben Franklin was at the heart of the Enlightenment. He drew to him some of the greatest minds of that time, people who remain among the most intriguing in history -- Americans, Englishmen, and Frenchmen whose ideas continue to shape how we live. Through engaging anecdotes and short histories, Atlantic Cousins includes intimate portraits of Franklin and Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Adams, Voltaire, the Marquis de Condorcet, Georges-Jacques Danton, Camille Desmoulins -- and their arch-enemy, William Cobbett, an unrelenting monarchist and anglophile. Aside from the colorful personalities, author Jack Fruchtman documents developments from Thomas Paine's smokeless candles to the founding of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Virginia; the debate that led to the Declaration of Independence; the abolitionist movement both in America and abroad; and Paine's Rights of Man. Atlantic Cousins contains numerous illustrations and maps that complement the material, and shows just how Ben Franklin and his circle of friends shaped this unique and remarkable period in history.