Ecce Homo! The Figure of Benjamin Rush

Benjamin Rush and the Gothic Origins of American Criminology

“…8 Rush is far more famously associated with rational discipline than with terror; he is the educated doctor and social reformer who sought to produce controlled, rational republican machines that would self-discipline away from madness and disorder. 9 It is possible to see Rush's invocations of gloom, terror, and Charles Brockden Brown as rhetorical flourishes. However, this seems unlikely -Rush was cautious about the effect of careless sensationalism on the reading public (a topic on which he disagreed with Brown).…”

“…At the same time, we should not see Rush and his rhetoric as solely emblematic of a political structure or cultural style. 19 Rush was drawing on cultural tropes and discourses, but he was also engaging in contested, personal, and specific debates about the causes and prevention of crime. 20 Prison reform was not only a question of society or politics, but how the reformers understood what worked.…”