Rush

portrait of Benjamin Rush

Stephen Fried

2018

Crown

 
“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.” — Publishers Weekly
 
“A perceptive analysis…reveal[s] a dedicated humanitarian with an enduring influence….Through the efforts of Mr. Fried…what Benjamin Rush characterized as ‘the distant and more enlightened generations’ are now better placed to judge him.” — The Wall Street Journal
 
“A welcome biography of a Founding Father…[who] became a prominent revolutionary and signer of the Declaration of Independence, then surgeon general of the Continental Army…renowned in the annals of American medicine as a pioneer of medical education and the treatment of the mentally ill….A complete portrait of a complex man…who excited attention and controversy in his day but then fell into the shadows. Fried does well to restore him to history.” — Kirkus