Alan Houston teaches in the department of political science at the University of California, San Diego.

• Acknowledgements; Introduction; Chronology; Bibliographical note; Biographical guide; A note on the texts; 1. The autobiography - Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four; 2. Plan of conduct (1726); 3. The nature and necessity of a paper currency (1729); 4. Apology for printers (1731); 5. Rules for a club formerly established at Philadelphia (1732); 6. Dialogue between two Presbyterians (1735); 7. Letter to Josiah and Abiah Franklin (1738); 8. Proposal for promoting useful knowledge (1743); 9. Speech of Miss Polly Baker (1747); 10. Plain truth (1747); 11. Form of the association and remarks (1747); 12. Advice to a young tradesman, written by an old one (1748); 13. Proposals relating to the education of youth in Pennsylvania; 14. Observations concerning the increase of mankind (1751); 15. Letter to James Parker (1751); 16. Rattlesnakes for Felons (1751); 17. Letter to Peter Collinson (1753); 18. Letter to Peter Collinson (1753); 19. Join or die (1754); 20. Reasons and motives for the Albany Plan of Union (1754); 21. Letters to Governor Shirley (1754) with a preface of 1766; 22. Preface to poor Richard improved (1757); 23. Letter to ________ (1757); 24. Letter to Lord Kames (1760); 25. On the price of corn, and the management of the poor (1766); 26. Letter to Lord Kames (1767); 27. Causes of the American discontents before 1768 (1768); 28. The Somersett case and the slave trade (1772); 29. Rules by which a Great Empire may be reduced to a small one (1773); 30. An edict by the King of Prussia (1773); 31. On a proposed act to prevent immigration (1773); 32. Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union (1775); 33. Morals of Chess (1779); 34. The Whistle (1779); 35. Letter to Joseph Priestley (1780); 36. Letter to Joseph Priestley (1782); 37. Letter to Richard Price (1782); 38. Letter to Robert Morris (1783); 39. Remarks concerning the savages of North America (1784); 40. Letter to Sarah Franklin Bache (1784); 41. Information to those who would remove to America (1784); 42. Letter to Benjamin Vaughan (1784); 43. At the Constitutional Convention (1787); 44. Queries and remarks (1789); 45. On the Slave Trade (1790); Index.