Inspired by the French term for a sprightly musical piece, Franklin labeled his collection of fables and tales bagatelles. They were written in a humorous and self-deprecating way and intended to amuse Franklin’s friends. Some were about his relationships with women, but others were about religious tolerance and other issues.

Isaacson argues that Franklin was a man of the Enlightenment. The term refers to a 17th- and 18th-century philosophical movement that emphasized reason and individualism over superstition and traditional hierarchies. Philosophers in that tradition include John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

The Great Awakening was a religious revival between the 1720s and 1740s. While Franklin did not adhere to its underlying theology, which valued faith over reason, and he rejected its condemnation of worldliness, he supported its challenge to deferential attitudes toward the clergy. Isaacson explains how Franklin benefitted financially from printing the sermons of one preacher whom the elite did not appreciate.