Politics in the early republic, like today, was bitterly partisan, but in 1811, one of the nation’s most renowned doctors David Hosack took the position that science “knows not party politics.” Hosack lived according to this motto. On hand at the infamous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr in 1804, he was the beloved Hamilton family doctor and a close friend of Burr. On this episode, Dr. Patrick Spero talks with Dr. Victoria Johnson on her Pulitzer Prize finalist book American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic.

Dr. Victoria Johnson is Associate Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College in New York City, where she teaches on the history of philanthropy, nonprofits, and New York City. She holds a doctorate in sociology from Columbia University and an undergraduate degree in philosophy from Yale.