I had heard of his name before but I had never known of all of the things he had accomplished from before the Revolution during the war helping the troops who were sick and injured especially after the crossing of the Delaware. The advice he gave to other leaders of the time and to the contributions to medicine that he made. This man did so much it is just hard to believe that I had never really known of all of the things and more. A very good book and worth the read.

Where to begin? Benjamin Rush is an unsung hero of the Revolution. He isn't larger than life like Washington, but he was there when he crossed the Delaware and tirelessly worked to improve the health of the troops. He isn't a flamboyant personality like Franklin, but John Adam's thought Rush's contribution to science and medicine was more meaningful. He wasn't president like his two friends Adams and Jefferson, but he advised them both and raised a son who became the youngest presidential cabinet member in history (nope, not Alexander Hamilton, but Richard Rush). He signed the Declaration of Independence, but never looked for political fame. He was the most famous physician in the country, but he chose to remain in Philadelphia during the 1793 yellow fever epidemic while others fled. He was an abolitionist in a time of slavery. A doctor to the insane when others felt there was no cure for insanity. He didn't write Common Sense, but he did encourage and advise Thomas Paine as he did.

"His brain was constantly racing; he was certain he knew how to fix everything but felt he had the power to fix nothing."

Some of this I knew about Benjamin Rush, but I had never before realized the extent of his accomplishments and how significantly his passion for equality and justice impacted our country at this pivotal time. He may have worked more quietly than some of the 'bigger names' of the era, but Rush was no less vital a block in America's foundation. Rush advised those big names and counted them among his closest friends. This is what makes this biography so impressive and so important to read. It provides an intimate, personal view of the Revolution and its aftermath - when the real work began.

Benjamin Rush was not afraid to speak his mind or "offer an inconvenient truth, without warning, in the middle of a conversation." However, he also believed friendship trumped political views and worked tirelessly to see reconciliation between former presidents Adams and Jefferson before he died.

Rush also was a strong supporter of the abolition of slavery. More than that, he helped freemen in Philadelphia establish African American churches and supported them as equals, even trying at one point to scientifically prove that black people were not inferior.

He could talk about differences in religion and did, especially with Thomas Jefferson, who had very unusual ideas about the Biblical Jesus. Rush thought these discussions were vital to personal development and critical thinking - something that has gone sadly out of vogue today. He believed religion was vital to teach in schools because without it "there can be no virtue," but he also did not think the state should enforce a single denomination of Christianity.

Possibly most shockingly, Rush believed in gun control. While we are led to believe that the Founding Fathers intended the 2nd amendment allow any citizen to own any form of weaponry, Rush didn't see it that way at all. He even felt that military parades should be discouraged because they "lessen the horrors of a battle by connecting them with the charms of order." He even offered sarcastic titles for the US Department of War such as "An office for butchering the human species" and "A Widow and Orphan making office."

Nothing speaks stronger words about Benjamin Rush than the words of those who knew him. When Rush died, Thomas Jefferson said, "A better man than Rush could not have left us, more benevolent, more learned, of finer genius, or more honest." John Adams responded, "He has suffered more and gained less in fame, fortune and feelings by the Revolution than almost any other man." In comparing Rush to Benjamin Franklin, Adams said, "Dr Rush was a greater and better man that Dr Franklin. Yet Rush was always persecuted and Franklin always adored. Why is not Dr Rush placed before Dr Franklin in the Temple of Fame? Because cunning is a more powerful divinity than simplicity. Rush has done infinitely more good to America than Franklin."

I encourage anyone interested in US History (in my opinion that should be anyone living in the US) to read this biography.

He turns up in almost every biography of an American founder or account of the American War of Independence. He played a pivotal role in battle field hygiene, the training of American doctors, and in the field of mental illness. His profile adorns the logo of the American Psychiatric Association. But one has to look hard for accounts of the life of Dr. Benjamin Rush until recently. Even John Adams expressed displeasure that Ben Franklin received far more notice although he believed Benjamin Rush the better man. In the past year, this balance has begun to be redressed. Harlow Giles Unger, who has written on most of the Founders has published a biography on Rush.

A fellow Philadelphian, journalist Stephen Fried, has completed what may be the definitive account of Rush’s life, using a growing archive of Rush’s correspondence and other documents, to give us a many-faceted portrait of one of America’s most distinctive Founders.

He begins with a spirited young boy who lost his father before turning six, lived with an aunt and uncle while attending Reverend Samuel Finley’s school. He graduated from Princeton at fourteen, apprenticed under Dr. John Redman for the next five years, and then went to Edinburgh for medical studies.

On his return, he is offered a chair in Chemistry at the College of Philadelphia, while alienating two of his mentors, John Morgan and William Shippen over credits on publications. With Shippen, this is just the beginning.

He is friends with nearly all the Founders, particularly as their paths crossed in Philadelphia. His welcome and advice to John Adams was critical in winning the support of the other colonies to the resistance that began in Massachusetts. He was highly esteemed by Franklin and succeeded Franklin as chair of the Philosophical Society of which they were both a part. He was a sounding board to Thomas Paine as he composed Common Sense. He is one of the youngest signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Like others, he sets aside personal interests to head a surgical department for the war effort, and confronts horrible battlefield conditions and Dr. Shippen’s mishandling of funds and resources as Surgeon General. His efforts to protest this ultimately fail, but here, as elsewhere, his pen achieves what he otherwise could not in his manual for battle field hygiene, implemented over the next hundred years and saving many lives. The other, and more profound controversy of the war concerned an unsigned letter he sent to Patrick Henry expressing reservations about Washington’s leadership. Henry passed the letter along to Washington, who recognized Rush’s handwriting. Relations were never warm, thereafter. In later years, he expressed both regret for the letter, and admiration for Washington.

The same passion that got him into trouble also made him an effective advocate with many causes. He was a devout believer, but participated in both Presbyterian and Anglican congregations and was an early proponent of religious tolerance. He loved conversation with skeptics like Jefferson while remaining orthodox in his own beliefs (even reciting an Anglican prayer book prayer on his deathbed). He advocated for the rights of blacks and the abolition of slavery (although he owned a slave that he only eventually and quietly emancipated) and helped start the first African church in Philadelphia. He was a proponent of education, founding Dickinson College, and advocated for the education of women. Perhaps most significant, with his appointment to the Philadelphia Hospital, he noticed the poor conditions of those suffering from mental illness, campaigning for separate and more humane treatment facilities. One of the most poignant aspects of this focus was that his eldest son John was one of his patients. He pioneered occupational therapies and treatments for addiction.

As a doctor, Fried’s portrait is of a dedicated, even heroic figure, tragically wedded to the dubious or even harmful methods of his day, notably the bleeding and purging of patients, which may have hastened mortality in a number of cases. His medical treatises often are extended defenses of these measures. Still, he remained in Philadelphia through a horrendous yellow fever epidemic, contracting (and surviving) the disease himself. He was considered one of the leading medical figures of the day, consulting with Lewis and Clark, provisioning them with medicines, including what they reported to be a very effective laxative! His greatest medical contribution may have been the hygiene and sanitation measures he recommended for the military that no doubt reduced the number of deaths from conditions in military camps.

While Rush’s correspondence got him in trouble in the early part of his life, at another point, he was responsible for a reconciliation that led to a most amazing exchange of letters. For a dozen years, Adams and Jefferson had been estranged from each other since the election of 1800. Rush was friends with both. He began by sharing a “dream” with Adams (a common device in their letters) about Adams and Jefferson resuming their friendship. Slowly, he helped the two of them resume correspondence, which eventually swelled to over 280 letters before both died July 4, 1826, fifty years after signing the Declaration of Independence with Rush. Both would outlive Rush, who died either of typhus or tuberculosis in 1813.

Altogether Rush and his wife Julia had thirteen children, a number dying in infancy or youth (not uncommon at this time). Richard, the second born served in both the Madison and Monroe administrations in cabinet positions while James followed in his steps as a physician and became a prominent figure, marrying into wealth.

Fried’s portrayal drew me in by exploring this distinctive man in his greatness and flaws. His youthful ambition and sense of rectitude overpowers his judgment of what is both appropriate and possible. He could be quite prickly in defending his own reputation, especially during the yellow fever epidemic, where his methods, if not his dedication, could be questioned. He shines in his friendships, his advocacy, and his love for his wife. He also seems something of a tragic figure as he watches the dissolution of his eldest son’s sanity, and the hopes that he would follow in his steps. I suspect he wasn’t an easy man to have as a father.

Fried has done us a great service. He has chronicled in full the life of one of the Founders who obviously deserves far more attention than he has received. Instead of being a bit player in the stories of others, we are introduced to Rush on his own terms, and begin to understand why he was in all the other stories. Were it not for him, we would not have the sparkling correspondence between Adams and Jefferson and the humane treatment of the mentally ill. You might say, he was the doctor who assisted at the birth of a nation.

I enjoy biography especially as applied to the Founding Fathers, but this biography portrayed Dr. Benjamin Rush as a resounding member of that early group when other biographers writing on other menbers of our early history barely mention the man. If the author had slanted the novel to highlight all Rush has done for medicine, especially mental health issues, and had I not been recently reading biographies on Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, etc., I probably would have accepted this version as correct. Unfortunately, I read the others first. I believe he certainly needs his story told but as a medical visionary not as a revolutionary leader.

I am not a history fan, but an earlier published review drew me to this book and I asked to review it for myself. I am glad that I asked and that my request was granted.

Dr. Benjamin Rush was the only medical school trained physician to sign the Declaration of Independence. He was not among the top tier of the founding fathers - but he did much to support and encourage the Washingtons, the Franklins, the Adams, and the others that led the new United States of America during its formative years. For many he was their doctor, for most he was their confident and friend.

Rush follows the life of Benjamin Rush, MD, from his birth in rural Pennsylvania in 1745 to his death in Philadelphia in 1813. He was educated and opinionated. He was a frequent writer - both of published works and many (still) unpublished pieces that have assisted historians to understand the years preceding and following the revolutionary war. Fried has done a superb job of drawing the reader into Rush’s life - as he looks at his family, colleagues, and work. The book concludes with an examination of the influence Rush had on fields as diverse as politics, education, medicine (particularly mental health), and literature. This includes a brief reference to the creation of the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago named after Dr. Benjamin Rush.

Reading much like a well-written novel, anyone with an interest in early American History, Medicine. Religion (Rush might be thought of as an original Evangelical), Education, and politics, will find this book to be a delight. Even though it is longer than most books I review (I even took a few days break to read a more typical book to change my pace), it was well worth my time. It is well documented (the last 1/5th of the book consists of notes and references) and might drive some readers to dive further into the history and impact of this man who touched so many of the founding father’s lives in the late 18th and early 19th century.
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This review is based on a free electronic copy provided by the publisher for the purpose of creating this review. The opinions are mine alone.

Rush may not have cured my Hamilton fever, but it does have a major storyline about Alexander Hamilton and a different type of fever. And even for those who may not be predisposed to favoring hip-hop musicals, Rush is a fantastic biography of a man who deserves more attention and applause from modern society. Benjamin Rush was closely involved with all of the famous Founding Fathers: Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, and the like. Of all of them, Washington and Hamilton were the only ones who did not like and respect Rush as a fellow Founding Father: Washington because of an early misunderstanding during the Revolution, and Hamilton because, well, Hamilton didn’t make friends very well.

Before picking up this book, I knew Benjamin Rush was a doctor and I think I knew that he was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, but I honestly couldn’t have told you another thing about him. In light of this common ignorance, the introduction to Rush is a brilliant portrayal of the man’s importance and provides fuel for the story to follow (much like the opening number to Hamilton … OK, I’ll stop) by highlighting the most influential portions of his life for the reader. Rush was known as “the American Hippocrates” for his work as a doctor, he pushed for better preventative care and hospital care for soldiers during the American Revolution, he was a member of the Continental Congress, his opinions were respected by and influenced many other Founding Fathers, he commissioned Thomas Paine to write Common Sense, he was an abolitionist who used every platform possible to proclaim it, he was a hero in Philadelphia’s yellow fever epidemic while it was the capital of the United States, and he advocated for treatment of mental illness as a physical and psychological issue rather than a moral failing. The list goes on. And as Rush’s author, Stephen Fried, writes, you can’t separate Rush the Doctor from Rush the Founder:
What all this questioning about liberty, morality, and equality came down to, for Rush, was health, in the broadest definition of the word. Physical health, mental health, spiritual health, economic health, political health, public and private health. He saw the American experiment through the prism of diagnosis; he saw everything that was wrong as something that could be treated; and he saw every lost patient as an opportunity to save the next.
In reading Rush, what both thrilled my mind the most was reading about his thoughts both on religious freedom and on mental illnesses. These are both personal interests of mine, and he was an early American leader on both. He was an early, avid, and lonely supporter of the American “no religious tests” principle for those who seek public office. From Fried:
But whether they were deist or atheist, it didn’t matter. Rush didn’t believe in religious prejudice: it wasn’t Christian. “There are many good men who do not believe in the divinity of the Son of God,” he told the conference. “I am not one of that class. But no man whose morals are good should be exempted because he will not take that declaration.”
It was one of the first, if not the first, public statements in the American debate on separation of church and state.
His views on mental illness were even more revolutionary. In a time where mental illnesses were treated by literally chaining the “patient” in the basement until they straightened out their own mind, Dr. Rush had a divergent point of view:
“Declare a dog is mad,” he wrote, “[and] he will soon be made so, and afterwards killed for being what barbarity made him.”
It was “vain to attack these vices with lectures upon morality. They are only to be cured by medicine. . . . [and] laws for the suppression of vice and immorality will be as ineffectual as the increase and enlargement of jails.”
I could go on about my appreciation for Rush’s thoughts on both religion and mental illness, but suffice it to say that he is a Founding Father that should be much more widely appreciated. If reading this book is one step toward making that happen, I urge you to do it as soon as possible. Our history is in dire need of characters like Dr. Rush.
I received this book as an eARC courtesy of Crown Publishing and NetGalley, but my opinions are my own.

Rush: Revolution, Madness, and Benjamin Rush, the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father Is a fascinating read. I give it a four stars.

I had read about Benjamin Rush in a history course I took, but admit that I didn't remember much about him. The author of this book did a fantastic job of not only researching his life, but of writing about it in a way that kept me engaged!

A great biography of a forgotten Founding Father. Stephen Fried captures the essence of a curious mind ahead of his time.

A member of the Founding Generation, Dr Benjamin Rush has been unforgivably allowed to fall into more or less obscurity, something which will be rectified if Stephen Fried’s superb biography of the good doctor gets the recognition it deserves. I understand that Fried is a journalist, and this biography reads like a novel; it is spritely and moves along, never boring nor dry.

I really enjoyed this book which is everything a biography should be. It tells the life of Benjamin Rush in great detail and with gusto, satisfactorily explains the context of his life and times in colonial and then independent America, and gives the reader a true picture of Rush’s interior life and character. The endnotes begin at 78% in my Kindle copy, something of which I greatly approve. I dislike intensely the recent tendency to skimp on, or eliminate footnotes entirely. I want to know where an author sourced his or her materials. I read every endnote, and I cannot be the only person to do so.

I would also like to mention specifically the epilogue and the “Aftermath.” So often biographies end with the subject’s death, with perhaps a few lines about the funeral or family members. I was very pleased to read a discussion of the fate of Dr Rush’s papers, to read about his family, and to follow how Benjamin Rush was allowed to fall out of the conversation of the Founding Generation.

I hope this biography of the unjustly neglected Benjamin Rush gets the recognition it truly deserves, both as a way of bringing Dr Rush back to his rightful place amongst the Founders, but also because it is an exemplary biography on its own. I have read several other biographies lately, all of which suffered from obvious defects; this book shows them up, and shows what a biography can be if it is done right.

I received a free Kindle copy of Rush by Stephen Fried courtesy of Net Galley  and Crown, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and my fiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book as my total exposure to Benjamin Rush was as the doctor who instructed Lewis and Clark on medicine for their famous exploration. This is the first book by Stephen Fried that I have read.

It turns out that Dr. Benjamin Rush turned out to be a lesser known, but important player in the early development of our country. He resided in Philadelphia which was the center of the war for independence and was influential through friendships he developed with John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

Besides his role in the revolution, I found that through his study and treatments for mental illness he established that is was a caused by many factors and not "humors of the body" as was believed for centuries.

Rush is truly a leading figure in the early development of our country both in a poitical and medical capacity. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the either subject.

For anyone with an interest in the 18th century, the American Revolution, and/or revolutionary medicine, this biography should more than satisfy. Highly intelligent, brash, and often controversial, Dr. Benjamin Rush was an American patriot, an Enlightenment era physician, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, founder of Dickenson College, a native Philadelphian, and a contemporary of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, and countless other luminaries with whom he corresponded and rubbed elbows during America's revolution. Reading like a well-written novel, but drawing on Rush's plethora of writings, letters, and personal notes, this book provides a depth of information about the man and his times. Especially interesting are Rush's thoughts on military medicine and treatment of the mentally ill. I couldn't recommend more highly.