“The Yellow Fever was the first epidemic after America became America.”
"The Yellow Fever was the first epidemic after America became America."
— Stephen Fried
We are joined this week by Stephen Fried, the award-winning journalist and best-selling author who teaches at Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania. We discuss his biography of Doctor Benjamin Rush and his more recent article, “Yellow Fever Stalks the Founders,” published in spring 2020 issue of American Heritage magazine. Fried speaks about how doctors in Philadelphia in 1793 dealt with contagious disease.
“Doctors”, Fried writes, “believed that building fires to change the air would be ineffectual, but burning gunpowder could work. In the aromatherapy department, citizens were soon eating or rubbing themselves with garlic, smoking constantly or chewing tobacco, and even dipping pieces of rope into tar to wear around their necks.”
Further Reading
Rush: Revolution, Madness, and Benjamin Rush, the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father by Stephen Fried
American Heritage: “Yellow Fever Stalks the Founders” by Stephen Fried
Jefferson Hour #1334 Benjamin Rush with Stephen Fried (2019)
What Would Jefferson Do?
“I went up to Philadelphia, because it was there I could get inoculated.”
Tune in to your local public radio or join the 1776 Club to hear this episode of What Would Thomas Jefferson Do?
This week on The Thomas Jefferson Hour, the conversation is driven by our listeners who report in on how they are dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. The conversation begins with the recognition of how important self-reliance is now, but that there is also a need for allegiance to community. Prompted by a listener, Clay Jenkinson recalls the famous John Dunne poem, “Any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee”.
Join us for a conversation with Joseph J. Ellis, an American historian whose work focuses on the founders of the United States of America. His books include American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson and Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams. Ellis speaks about how important presidential leadership is during times of crisis.
"The Yellow Fever was the first epidemic after America became America."
— Stephen Fried
We are joined this week by Stephen Fried, the award-winning journalist and best-selling author who teaches at Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania. We discuss his biography of Doctor Benjamin Rush and his more recent article, “Yellow Fever Stalks the Founders,” published in spring 2020 issue of American Heritage magazine. Fried speaks about how doctors in Philadelphia in 1793 dealt with contagious disease.
"The difference, sir, is that you understand the notion of vaccines and vaccination."
— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson