
Rush
Revolution, Madness, and Benjamin Rush, the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Buy for $27.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
John H. Mayer
-
By:
-
Stephen Fried
About this listen
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 30, Dr. Benjamin Rush had signed the Declaration of Independence, edited Common Sense, toured Europe as Benjamin 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)
©2018 Stephen Fried (P)2018 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Founding Martyr
- The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution's Lost Hero
- By: Christian Di Spigna
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A rich and illuminating biography of America’s forgotten Founding Father, the patriot physician and major general who fomented rebellion and died heroically at the battle of Bunker Hill on the brink of revolution. Little has been known of one of the most important figures in early American history, Dr. Joseph Warren, an architect of the colonial rebellion, and a man who might have led the country as Washington or Jefferson did had he not been martyred at Bunker Hill in 1775. Warren was involved in almost every major insurrectionary act in the Boston area for a decade.
-
-
really mixed
- By Amazon Customer on 07-16-22
-
John Adams
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 29 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
McCullough's John Adams has the sweep and vitality of a great novel. This is history on a grand scale, an audiobook about politics, war, and social issues, but also about human nature, love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, friendship, and betrayal, and the far-reaching consequences of noble ideas. Above all, it is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived.
-
-
An outstanding biography
- By Davis on 07-10-06
By: David McCullough
-
Hero of Two Worlds
- The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution
- By: Mike Duncan
- Narrated by: Mike Duncan
- Length: 17 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the massively popular podcaster and New York Times best-selling author comes the story of the Marquis de Lafayette's lifelong quest to protect the principles of democracy, told through the lens of the three revolutions he participated in: the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Revolution of 1830.
-
-
Thrillingly storytelling — brilliant narration
- By Byron on 08-24-21
By: Mike Duncan
-
James Monroe
- A Life
- By: Tim McGrath
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 28 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The extraordinary life of James Monroe: Soldier, senator, diplomat, and the last Founding Father to hold the presidency, a man who helped transform 13 colonies into a vibrant and mighty republic.
-
-
Large and inconsistent, much like Monroe himself.
- By Kindle Customer on 01-31-21
By: Tim McGrath
-
The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams
- By: Stacy Schiff
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thomas Jefferson asserted that if there was any leader of the Revolution, “Samuel Adams was the man.” With high-minded ideals and bare-knuckle tactics, Adams led what could be called the greatest campaign of civil resistance in American history. Stacy Schiff returns Adams to his seat of glory, introducing us to the shrewd and eloquent man who supplied the moral backbone of the American Revolution, bringing her masterful skills to Adams’s improbable life, illuminating his transformation from aimless son of a well-off family to tireless, beguiling radical who mobilized the colonies.
-
-
The revolutionary
- By Charles on 11-02-22
By: Stacy Schiff
-
Washington
- A Life
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 41 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Washington: A Life celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation. This crisply paced narrative carries the reader through his troubled boyhood, his precocious feats in the French and Indian War, his creation of Mount Vernon, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his magnificent performance as America's first president.
-
-
A sad day when my book was done!
- By ButterLegume on 12-13-10
By: Ron Chernow
-
Founding Martyr
- The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution's Lost Hero
- By: Christian Di Spigna
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A rich and illuminating biography of America’s forgotten Founding Father, the patriot physician and major general who fomented rebellion and died heroically at the battle of Bunker Hill on the brink of revolution. Little has been known of one of the most important figures in early American history, Dr. Joseph Warren, an architect of the colonial rebellion, and a man who might have led the country as Washington or Jefferson did had he not been martyred at Bunker Hill in 1775. Warren was involved in almost every major insurrectionary act in the Boston area for a decade.
-
-
really mixed
- By Amazon Customer on 07-16-22
-
John Adams
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 29 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
McCullough's John Adams has the sweep and vitality of a great novel. This is history on a grand scale, an audiobook about politics, war, and social issues, but also about human nature, love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, friendship, and betrayal, and the far-reaching consequences of noble ideas. Above all, it is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived.
-
-
An outstanding biography
- By Davis on 07-10-06
By: David McCullough
-
Hero of Two Worlds
- The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution
- By: Mike Duncan
- Narrated by: Mike Duncan
- Length: 17 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the massively popular podcaster and New York Times best-selling author comes the story of the Marquis de Lafayette's lifelong quest to protect the principles of democracy, told through the lens of the three revolutions he participated in: the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Revolution of 1830.
-
-
Thrillingly storytelling — brilliant narration
- By Byron on 08-24-21
By: Mike Duncan
-
James Monroe
- A Life
- By: Tim McGrath
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 28 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The extraordinary life of James Monroe: Soldier, senator, diplomat, and the last Founding Father to hold the presidency, a man who helped transform 13 colonies into a vibrant and mighty republic.
-
-
Large and inconsistent, much like Monroe himself.
- By Kindle Customer on 01-31-21
By: Tim McGrath
-
The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams
- By: Stacy Schiff
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thomas Jefferson asserted that if there was any leader of the Revolution, “Samuel Adams was the man.” With high-minded ideals and bare-knuckle tactics, Adams led what could be called the greatest campaign of civil resistance in American history. Stacy Schiff returns Adams to his seat of glory, introducing us to the shrewd and eloquent man who supplied the moral backbone of the American Revolution, bringing her masterful skills to Adams’s improbable life, illuminating his transformation from aimless son of a well-off family to tireless, beguiling radical who mobilized the colonies.
-
-
The revolutionary
- By Charles on 11-02-22
By: Stacy Schiff
-
Washington
- A Life
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 41 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Washington: A Life celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation. This crisply paced narrative carries the reader through his troubled boyhood, his precocious feats in the French and Indian War, his creation of Mount Vernon, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his magnificent performance as America's first president.
-
-
A sad day when my book was done!
- By ButterLegume on 12-13-10
By: Ron Chernow
-
Alexander Hamilton
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 35 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Historians have long told the story of America’s birth as the triumph of Jefferson’s democratic ideals over the aristocratic intentions of Hamilton. Chernow presents an entirely different man, whose legendary ambitions were motivated not merely by self-interest but by passionate patriotism and a stubborn will to build the foundations of American prosperity and power.
-
-
An Outstanding & Riveting Book!
- By Kevin on 03-04-05
By: Ron Chernow
-
John Quincy Adams
- Militant Spirit
- By: James Traub
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 25 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Quincy Adams was the last of his kind - a Puritan from the age of the Founders who despised party and compromise yet dedicated himself to politics and government. The son of John Adams, he was a brilliant ambassador and secretary of state, a frustrated president at a historic turning point in American politics, and a dedicated congressman who literally died in office - at the age of 80, in the House of Representatives, in the midst of an impassioned political debate.
-
-
Best narrator of all the audio books I've listened
- By grimm79 on 12-12-17
By: James Traub
-
The Last Founding Father
- James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness
- By: Harlow Giles Unger
- Narrated by: Michael McConnohie
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this lively and compelling biography, Harlow Giles Unger reveals the dominant political figure of a generation. A fierce fighter in four critical Revolutionary War battles and a courageous survivor of Valley Forge and a near-fatal wound at the Battle of Trenton, James Monroe (1751 - 1831) went on to become America's first full-time politician, dedicating his life to securing America's national and international durability.
-
-
Readable, but more hero worship than history
- By Elaine Martin on 12-22-10
-
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 24 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us - an ambitious urban entrepreneur who rose up the social ladder, from leather-aproned shopkeeper to dining with kings. In best-selling author Walter Isaacson's vivid and witty full-scale biography, we discover why Franklin turns to us from history's stage with eyes that twinkle from behind his new-fangled spectacles. In Benjamin Franklin, Isaacson shows how Franklin defines both his own time and ours. The most interesting thing that Franklin invented, and continually reinvented, was himself.
-
-
Good book, not crazy about the narrator
- By Cathi on 07-20-13
By: Walter Isaacson
-
Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann, Jon Meacham
- Length: 18 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this magnificent biography, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Lion and Franklin and Winston brings vividly to life an extraordinary man and his remarkable times. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power gives us Jefferson the politician and president, a great and complex human being forever engaged in the wars of his era.
-
-
A Man and Biography Relevant to Our Day
- By Darwin8u on 11-14-12
By: Jon Meacham
-
The Three Lives of James Madison
- Genius, Partisan, President
- By: Noah Feldman
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 34 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the course of his life, James Madison changed the United States three times: First, he designed the Constitution, led the struggle for its adoption and ratification, then drafted the Bill of Rights. As an older, cannier politician, he cofounded the original Republican party, setting the course of American political partisanship. Finally, having pioneered a foreign policy based on economic sanctions, he took the United States into a high-risk conflict, becoming the first wartime president and, despite the odds, winning.
-
-
Cogently organized, meticulously balanced
- By Diana Black Kennedy on 06-15-18
By: Noah Feldman
-
Friends Divided
- John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
- By: Gordon S. Wood
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams could scarcely have come from more different worlds or been more different in temperament. Jefferson, the optimist with enough faith in the innate goodness of his fellow man to be democracy's champion, was an aristocratic Southern slave owner while Adams, the overachiever from New England's rising middling classes, painfully aware he was no aristocrat, was a skeptic about popular rule and a defender of a more elitist view of government.
-
-
A Great Read
- By Jean on 12-22-17
By: Gordon S. Wood
-
The Pioneers
- The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: John Bedford Lloyd
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The number one New York Times best seller by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough rediscovers an important chapter in the American story that's "as resonant today as ever" (The Wall Street Journal) - the settling of the Northwest Territory by courageous pioneers who overcame incredible hardships to build a community based on ideals that would define our country.
-
-
i would prefer david reading it
- By hooterwah on 05-07-19
By: David McCullough
-
John Quincy Adams
- American Visionary
- By: Fred Kaplan
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 27 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this fresh and lively biography rich in literary analysis and new historical detail, Fred Kaplan brings into focus the dramatic life of John Quincy Adams - the little known and much misunderstood sixth president of the United States and the first son of John and Abigail Adams - and persuasively demonstrates how Adams's inspiring, progressive vision guided his life and helped shape the course of America.
-
-
Destined by birth, mentored by greats...
- By Jonathan Love on 03-04-16
By: Fred Kaplan
-
American Lion
- Andrew Jackson in the White House
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Richard McGonagle
- Length: 17 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beloved and hated, venerated and reviled, Andrew Jackson was an orphan who fought his way to the pinnacle of power, bending the nation to his will in the cause of democracy. Jackson's election in 1828 ushered in a new and lasting era in which the people, not distant elites, were the guiding force in American politics. Democracy made its stand in the Jackson years, and he gave voice to the hopes and the fears of a restless, changing nation facing challenging times at home and threats abroad.
-
-
Unlikable Old Hickory
- By John M on 01-05-09
By: Jon Meacham
-
Destiny of the Republic
- A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President
- By: Candice Millard
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
James A. Garfield may have been the most extraordinary man ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, and a renowned and admired reformist congressman. Nominated for president against his will, he engaged in a fierce battle with the corrupt political establishment. But four months after his inauguration, a deranged office seeker tracked Garfield down and shot him in the back. But the shot didn’t kill Garfield. The drama of what happened subsequently is a powerful story of a nation in turmoil.
-
-
Marvelous, Magnificent, Millard
- By Mel on 02-08-12
By: Candice Millard
-
Fallen Founder
- The Life of Aaron Burr
- By: Nancy Isenberg
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 19 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Generations have been told that Aaron Burr was a betrayer: of Alexander Hamilton, of his country, of those who had nobler ideas. But that version has been shaped by historians and writers from the 18th century on who were blinded by tabloid reports and propaganda created by Burr's political enemies during his lifetime. It is time to discover the real Aaron Burr.
-
-
Very Burr-Centric
- By Derek on 11-11-07
By: Nancy Isenberg
Critic reviews
“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.” (H.W. Brands, author of The First American and Heirs of the Founders)
“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.” (Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights and A Prayer for the City)
"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." (Kay Redfield Jamison, author of An Unquiet Mind and Robert Lowell: Setting the River on Fire)
Very interesting biography of a little known signer of the Declaration.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Enlightening review of early American history
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
One point of disagreement that I have is the author's premise that Rush supported the separation of church and state. He made this commenting several times, but never provided direct evidence to support this claim, especially as we understand it today. Rush was one of the most religious founding fathers, so to think he didn't want churches influencing government at all didn't match with what we know of him.
Also, this was read too slow for my liking. I had to speed it up to enjoy it.
It's a good book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Masterpiece
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Fascinating and Eye-opening.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book is an incredible narrative on many fronts. Never having even heard the name of Benjamin Rush, the book caught my attention. Having finished the book, all I can ask is “Why hasn’t this man’s life, his importance to the founding of out nation, and his contribution to medicine in the US, not been a part of every history class covering the American Revolution and it’s aftermath?”
If you want to know more about the men & women that made significant contributions to the founding of our nation, read this book (or listen to it). You will also learn about of the less attractive words & actions that politicians continue to (sadly) emulate to this day.
An Eye Opening & Enjoyable Book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
interesting read
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The narration problem can be corrected
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An Amazing Read!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Life has not changed much in America. Rush insights into pandemics and mental illness prophetic . A must read for all who value ANERICA.
A Must Read
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.