The monumental life of Benjamin Rush, medical pioneer and one of our most provocative and unsung Founding Fathers FINALIST FOR THE GEORGE WASHINGTON BOOK PRIZE • AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR By the time he was thirty, Dr. Benjamin Rush had signed the Declaration of Independence, edited Common Sense, toured Europe as Benjamin Franklin’s protégé, and become John Adams’s … Franklin’s protégé, and become John Adams’s confidant, and was soon to be appointed Washington’s surgeon general. And as with the greatest Revolutionary minds, Rush was only just beginning his role in 1776 in the American experiment. As the new republic coalesced, he became a visionary writer and reformer; a medical pioneer whose insights and reforms revolutionized the treatment of mental illness; an opponent of slavery and prejudice by race, religion, or gender; an adviser to, and often the physician of, America’s first leaders; and “the American Hippocrates.” Rush reveals his singular life and towering legacy, installing him in the pantheon of our wisest and boldest Founding Fathers.
Praise for Rush
“Entertaining . . . Benjamin Rush has been undeservedly forgotten. In medicine . . . [and] as a political thinker, he was brilliant.”—The New Yorker
“Superb . . . reminds us eloquently, abundantly, what a brilliant, original man Benjamin Rush was, and how his contributions to . . . the United States continue to bless us all.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Perceptive . . . [a] readable reassessment of Rush’s remarkable career.”—The Wall Street Journal
“An amazing life and a fascinating book.”—CBS This Morning
“Fried makes the case, in this comprehensive and fascinating biography, that renaissance man Benjamin Rush merits more attention. . . . Fried portrays Rush as a complex, flawed person and not just a list of accomplishments; . . . a testament to the authorial thoroughness and insight that will keep readers engaged until the last page.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“[An] extraordinary and underappreciated man is reinstated to his rightful place in the canon of civilizational advancement in Rush. . . . Had I read Fried’s Rush before the year’s end, it would have crowned my favorite books of 2018 . . . [a] superb biography.”—Brain Pickings
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Stephen Fried has written a gem of a book—the riveting story of a Founding Father who is too often forgotten. In this magnificent work, Benjamin Rush gets the biography he deserves, and readers get an expertly researched, splendidly written account of a brilliant, influential man and the times in which he lived.
Benjamin Rush is best known as the founding father the more famous founders wrote to. Stephen Fried, in this fascinating biography, shows us why we need to reconsider, and pay more attention to a man whose talents rivaled Franklin’s, opinions equaled Adams’s, and facility with language approached Jefferson’s.
Just reading the Preface in Stephen Fried’s new biography Rush: Revolution, Madness and the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father I was shocked by the breadth and depth of Rush’s accomplishments. It is hard to believe how ignorant we are about Rush’s lasting contributions. I had come across Benjamin Rush in my readings on the Revolution and Founding Fathers and was interested in learning more about the man. Fried’s book has made me a lasting and enthusiastic fan of this Philadelphia physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Rush knew all the big names of his time period. His friends included Benjamin Franklin, John Addams, and Thomas Jefferson. He encouraged Thomas Paine to write Common Sense. Adams wrote that Rush had contributed more to the Revolution than Franklin! It was Rush who pressured Adams and Jefferson to reconnect after years of alienation.
As a physician, he championed humane treatment for the mentally ill and identified addiction as a medical, not a moral, condition. During the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 when 10% of the population died, Rush courageously stayed in Philadelphia. Many doctors fled the city along with anyone else who had somewhere else to go. The African American community came out to assist; it was thought they were immune to the disease!
Rush saw war and the disease and injuries that took lives. He triaged troops and was with Washington when he crossed the Delaware and at battlefields including Brandywine, Trenton, and Princeton. He knew that more soldiers died from sickness than the sword and created standards of hygiene for the military, including the first military buzz-cut.
Rush was a practicing physician. He lived before we understood viruses and bacteria, when bleeding and purgatives were employed. He was called to educate and outfit Lewis and Clark for their expedition. His purgative known as Rush’s Pills included mercury, which has helped us track Lewis and Clark’s journey! Rush thought up the circular surgical theater.
He was a lifelong educator, medical writer and lecturer. He founded Dickinson College to bring higher education to rural Pennsylvania and campaigned for free public education.
An ardent abolitionist, Rush supported the founding of the first African Methodist Church. He was a dedicated Christian who supported the separation of church and state while maintaining the importance of faith as a moral guide.
Rush knew that when the war was over, the real work of founding a nation would begin which needed to balance “science, religion, liberty and good government.”
Rush married the daughter of another Declaration signer, Julia Stockton. They had thirteen children. Rush was a devoted and loving husband and father, but his illustrious fame and high standards were hard to live up to. His son became an alcoholic who ended up hospitalized, a ‘madman’ who was studied by the actor Edwin Forrest while preparing for his breakout role as King Lear. Another son, Richard, was close to John Quincy Adams and became his vice presidential candidate and he was commissioned to collect the James Smithson trust money which funded the Smithsonian.
Fried’s chapter on what happened to Rush’s papers and letters explains why he disappeared from memory until mid-2oth c. Julia Rush’s most treasured and private letters by her husband were in the family until 1975 when they were donated to the Rosenbach Library in Philadelphia.
The story of Rush’s life was exciting to read. As a popular history, I found it very accessible and quick reading. A Goodreads friend told me that Rush was her favorite Founding Father. It appears he was John Adams’ favorite as well, judging by his response to Rush’s death as recorded by Abigal, which Fried includes in the book:
“O my friend, my friend, my ancient, my constant, my unshaken friend! My brother, art thou gone? Gone forever Who can estimate thy worth, who can appreciate thy loss? To thy country, to thy family, to thy friends, to science, to literature, to the world at large? To a character which in every relation of life shone resplendent?” John Adams upon the death of Rush as reported by Abigal Adams
“…a better man than Rush, could not have left us, more benevolent, more learned, of finer genius, or more honest.” Thomas Jefferson in a letter to John Adams
“I know of no Character living or dead who has done more real good in America.” John Adams response to Thomas Jefferson’s letter
I received a free ebook through First to Read in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
As good a book on the Revolution and our founders as I’ve read.
I liked this biography of Dr. Rush because of the insights into the world of the American Revolution and the struggles of the founding fathers in trying to construct the form of government for the new nation. The relationships between John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Dr. rush were very interesting. Also new to me was Dr. Rush’s early investigations into mental illness and treatments for it. This is a fairly long book, but well worth reading especially in light of recent developments and arguments about which way the US should go.
This volume about Benjamin Rush was illuminating information about one of America’s Founding Fathers whose story has been little-known until now. He was a giant among physicians, founded the first mental asylum (rather than jail) in America, bravely stayed in Philadelphia during a major yellow fever epidemic when most physicians fled to the countryside for safety and had a major role in defining military medicine as a consideration for troops. An underappreciated signer of the Declaration of Independence, Rush’s amazing contributions to the revolutionary era deserve to be better appreciated and this volume helps achieve that end.
Finally, a wonderful biography on Benjamin Rush!
Good author. Good writing.
Painful to get through and I’m a history fanatic.
The best books are full of surprises. Rush has more of them than any historical biography I have read in ages. It is vast and sumptuous and brings to life Founding Father Benjamin Rush in full technicolor. Too long ignored, Rush’s varied and mercurial brilliance puts him smack in the company of such figures as Adams and Jefferson and Washington and Hamilton with one exception: he is more interesting than any of them. He revolutionized medicine. He revolutionized healthcare. He revolutionized life. Fried draws it all out with his usual perfect pitch of reportage and writing. What a grand feast and feat.
An important and fascinating account of a relatively neglected yet critical Founding Father. Benjamin Rush—Surgeon General of the Continental Army, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Jefferson’s choice for medical advisor to the Lewis and Clark Expedition—is also acknowledged as the Father of American Psychiatry for his study and treatment of the mentally ill. Stephen Fried brings to life Rush’s extraordinary political and medical contributions, as well as the times in which he lived.