Stephen Fried

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.

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.

An engrossing exploration of a founding father whose life sheds new light on the American Revolution, as well as on the ongoing challenges of civil rights and mental healthcare in this country. I had no idea how much Rush helped to shape our young nation and how urgent his voice remains today. Anyone who cares about our past and future—politically, medically, spiritually—should read this masterful biography.

Stephen Fried has written a gem of a book—the riveting story of a Founding Father who is too often forgotten. In this magnificent work, Benjamin Rush gets the biography he deserves, and readers get an expertly researched, splendidly written account of a brilliant, influential man and the times in which he lived.

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.

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.

Stephen Fried has done an admirable job reconstructing Gia's frenzied life...Fried makes a convincing case, through recording Gia's travails, that fetching eyes and a killer body are not enough. This is a chilling tale that every pretty, stupid young thing should read.

Gia's story has everying—glamor, glitz, squalor and tradgedy.

Vivid...The story of Gia Carangi...should be set out among the fashion magazines in modeling agency waiting rooms and any other place where teen-age girls who've been called pretty a little too often hang out...Stephen Fried's exhaustive account of Gia's brief life seems to have an important unanswered quesition on every page: why didn't anyone help Gia?

Fascinating … This book is a must-read, not only for those suffering from mental health and substance use disorders, but also for the professionals who treat them and for those who pay for that treatment.

Searching and fearless.

A stunningly unvarnished portrait of one of America’s most private public families…

Appetite for America is the kind of superb non-fiction you don’t see anymore—marvelously reported, fluidly written and a remarkable story about a remarkable man who influenced American culture perhaps more than anyone alive past or present. Today he is a footnote, but Stephen Fried brings him alive in a true story as brilliant as it is meticulous as it is compulsively readable

Part business story, part social history, part family saga, Appetite for America gives us the winning of the West in a whole new mouthwatering way.

Fried is insightful as well as funny.

Brave . . . remarkable . . . a book about leadership that you don’t have to be Jewish to appreciate.

Fascinating . . . Beneath the story about synagogue politics is a novel-like story about love and loss.

Compelling . . . extraordinarily valuable . . . intertwines a personal search for religious meaning with a communal search for continuity. . . . Fried hoped to shed light on the future of the rabbinic profession and, indirectly, on the future of Judaism and organized religion in America . . . and [he] gets it absolutely right.

One of the year’s best books…startling…sobering.

Bitter Pills could save your life.

Explosive.