Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-266) and index.

One was a media mogul, the other a celebrity evangelist. The first championed personal responsibility. The second preached salvation by grace. Both worked their way from obscurity, breaking down barriers to become the most famous men in America. Benjamin Franklin and George Whitefield were born on opposite sides of the Atlantic, yet their decades-long friendship propelled them and their ideas to change the fabric of America's values: minimizing class, denomination, and location while magnifying the individual. A biography of either legend would have plenty of dramatic material, from London's theater scene to Philadelphia's halls of government. Yet here Randy Petersen adds something more. He gives context for the events, weaving the two men's stories to reveal how each changed the other -- and how both ultimately affected all of us. - Jacket flap.