Research Catalog

Law and medicine in revolutionary America : dissecting the Rush v. Cobbett trial, 1799

Title
Law and medicine in revolutionary America : dissecting the Rush v. Cobbett trial, 1799 / Linda Myrsiades.
Author
Myrsiades, Linda S.
Publication
Bethlehem, PA : Lehigh University Press ; Lanham, MD : Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, ©2012.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Filter by

1 Item

StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
Book/TextUse in library KF228.R85 M97 2012Off-site

Details

Description
xiii, 267 pages : illustrations; 24 cm.
Summary
"Law and Medicine in Revolutionary America: Dissecting the Rush v. Cobbett Trial, 1799 offers the first deep analysis of the most important libel trial in post-revolutionary America and an approach to understanding a much-studied revolutionary figure, Benjamin Rush, in a new light as a legal subject. This libel trial faced off the new nation's most prestigious physician-patriot, Benjamin Rush, against its most popular journalist, William Cobbett, the editor of Porcupine's Gazette. Studied by means of a rare and substantial surviving transcript, the trial features six litigating counsel whose narrative of events and roles provides a unique view of how the revolutionary generation saw itself and the legacy it wished to leave to its progeny. The trial is structured by assaults against medical bleeding and its premier practitioner in yellow fever epidemics of the 1790s in Philadelphia, on the one hand, and castigates the licentiousness of the press in the nation's then-capital city, on the other. As it does so, it exemplifies the much-derided litigiousness of the new nation and the threat of sedition that characterized the development of political parties and the partisan press in late eighteenth-century America"--Provided by publisher.
Series Statement
Studies in eighteenth-century America and the Atlantic world
Uniform Title
Studies in eighteenth-century America and the Atlantic world.
Alternative Title
Dissecting the Rush v. Cobbett trial, 1799
Subject
  • Rush, Benjamin, 1746-1813 > Trials, litigation, etc
  • Cobbett, William, 1763-1835 > Trials, litigation, etc
  • Rush, Benjamin, 1746-1813
  • Cobbett, William, 1763-1835
  • Cobbett, William, 1763-1835
  • Rush, Benjamin, 1746-1813
  • Porcupine's gazette
  • Porcupine's gazette
  • 1700-1799
  • Trials (Libel) > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia > History > 18th century
  • Medicine > History > 18th century
  • Jurisprudence > history
  • History, 18th Century
  • Medicine
  • Trials
  • Trials (Libel)
  • Philadelphia
  • Pennsylvania > Philadelphia
Genre/Form
History
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (p. 237-259) and index.
Contents
Benjamin Rush and the culture of medicine -- Malpractice law and Benjamin Rush -- William Cobbett and the scurrilous press -- Libel law and William Cobbett -- Sangrado v. the cloven foot, the trial -- The trial concluded.
ISBN
  • 9781611461022
  • 1611461022
  • 9781611461039
  • 1611461030
LCCN
  • 2012008375
  • 99951239904
OCLC
  • ocn775416615
  • 775416615
  • SCSB-1654299
Owning Institutions
Princeton University Library