Would America have won the Revolutionary War without Benjamin Franklin’s uncanny knack for politics and persuasion? How would things have gone if the American polymath, the tenth son of a poor candle and soap maker originally from England, hadn’t learned how to be tactful in practicing the science of diplomacy in Paris?

Would he have been able to summon France’s invaluable financial and military aid?  Lauded as the personification of New World Enlightenment, the multi-minded Franklin became the first American diplomat (1776-1785) – the first American ambassador to France — and one of the most successful of all time.