He wasn't a gambler, yet Benjamin Franklin allowed himself a wager on the survival of the United States: a gift of 2,000 pounds to Boston and Philadelphia, to be lent out to tradesmen over the next two centuries to jump-start their careers. Here Michael Meyer traces the evolution of these funds as they age alongside America itself, bankrolling woodworkers and silversmiths, trade schools and space races. Although Franklin's wager was sometimes misused, neglected, and contested, it was never extinguished, and Meyer suggests that it offers an inspiring vision of prosperity in our modern era of wealth disparity and social divisions.