Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Rush
Rush: Revolution, Madness, and Benjamin Rush, the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father | Stephen Fried
2 posts | 2 read | 1 reading | 6 to read
The remarkable story of Benjamin Rush, medical pioneer and one of our nation’s most provocative and unsung Founding Fathers In the summer of 1776, fifty-six men put their quills to a dangerous document they called the Declaration of Independence. Among them was a thirty-year-old doctor named Benjamin Rush. One of the youngest signatories, he was also, among stiff competition, one of the most visionary. A brilliant physician and writer, Rush was known as the “American Hippocrates” for pioneering national healthcare and revolutionizing treatment of mental illness and addiction. Yet medicine is only part of his legacy. Dr. Rush was both a progressive thorn in the side of the American political establishment—a vocal opponent of slavery, capital punishment, and prejudice by race, religion or gender—and close friends with its most prominent leaders. He was the protégé of Franklin, the editor of Common Sense, Washington’s surgeon general, and the broker of peace between Adams and Jefferson, yet his stubborn convictions more than once threatened his career and his place in the narrative of America’s founding. Drawing on a trove of previously unpublished letters and images, the voluminous correspondence between Rush and his better-known counterparts, and his candid and incisive personal writings, New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist Stephen Fried resurrects the most significant Founding Father we’ve never heard of and finally installs Dr. Rush in the pantheon of great American leaders.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
review
SirReadsalot1776
Mehso-so

This book brings to light a neglected Founding Father, that certainly deserves a more prominent place in our nation's psyche. The writing style was engaging at times, but not consistently.

review
ValerieAndBooks
post image
Pickpick

Benjamin Rush was a physician who studied mental illness in addition to his other duties, signer of the Declaration of Independence (& son-in-law of another signer), instrumental in repairing the friendship break between Presidents John Adams and Jefferson, & a Philadelphia native buried near Benjamin Franklin. In spite of all that, little has been written or researched about him until this recent bio by Stephen Fried. Well-written & engaging. 👇

ValerieAndBooks The arguments that went on through the 1793 yellow fever pandemic was reminiscent of today. For example DR. Rush had strong disagreements over it with Alexander and Eliza Hamilton. I read this as part of the DAR book club list. 4y
Suet624 Sounds so interesting! 4y
51 likes2 stack adds2 comments