Benjamin Rush, Civic Health, and Human Illness in the Early American Republic

At the end of the Revolutionary War, new American citizens found themselves in a new country. For Philadelphia physician Benjamin Rush and his colleagues, that newness extended beyond a change in political structure. They believed that the physical challenges of growing cities and western expansion and the psychological challenges of new identities came together in ways that could help or hurt American health. From his vantage point at one of the nation's few medical schools, Rush developed a reputation as America's physician—while mixing social and scientific ideas for the "improvement" of the country as a whole. This book explores Rush's social and scientific networks and their role in the development of a distinctly American medical profession.
 
Dr. Sarah Naramore is an Assistant Professor of History at Northwest Missouri University. Her research primarily focuses on the history of the American medical profession during American Revolution and Early Republic with a particular focus on what was “American” about the way professional medicine developed. In addition to her current book project, Dr. Naramore has published in The Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Social History of Medicine, and Endeavour and has forthcoming book chapters on American yellow fever epidemics and science in the era of the American Revolution.  
 
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