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Iconoclast is a thoughtful, wonderfully crafted, solidly researched account of an uncommon life that far exceeds Abraham Flexner's association with reform in medical education... Bonner's labors have produced a critical, insightful portrait of Flexner as a brilliant, tireless, extraordinarily persuasive visionary. In addition to detailed portraits of the man 'at the vortex of swiftly moving scientific, educational, and philanthropic currents' in higher education in the United States, Bonner also provides an account of Flexner's personal life... For all of us in academic medicine, Iconoclast offers a learned portrait of the distance traveled in medical education during the past 100 years, along with consideration of the curricular and pedagogical problems that persist.
Bonner's great achievement in this scholarly and captivating book is to model Flexner's critical appraisal skills in writing about him. Even Flexner himself lacked critical awareness in his autobiography... Bonner, on the other hand, offers a gentle and thoughtful appraisal. The elements that contribute to Flexner's greatness—perseverance, vision, clear thinking, and fair mindedness—are all balanced with his weaknesses—an obstinate unwillingness to retract and clouded political insight... Bonner dissects Flexner's contribution with meticulous scholarship, avoiding all cheap adulation or debunking. This is an outstanding book.
The book offers historical insights about philanthropy, educational reform, and institutional governance and decision making... In Bonner's capable hands, Flexner emerges an interesting figure whose successes are combined with contradictions and shortcomings.
An outstanding and thorough study of this remarkable American educator who, more than anyone before or since, defined what a medical school should be, left indelible marks on public education, and founded one of the most innovative centers of advanced study in the world. Bonner adroitly portrays in this masterful biography what America and the world owes to Flexner for his vision, creativity, tenacity, and advocacy of progressive education.
Few nonphysicians have had as profound and long-lasting an effect on modern American medicine as Abraham Flexner... An excellent book about a highly significant and neglected figure.
Not only fills a major void but also provides an important evaluation of an individual whose contributions to education and a variety of social problems have generally been overlooked... Bonner's biography restores Flexner to the position of importance that he merits... This biography is a major addition to American historiography.
Excellent... Deeply researched, carefully presented... This thorough, creative biography adjusts our view of this powerful man so engaged in an astounding array of twentieth-century educational developments.
Thanks to Thomas Bonner's Iconoclast, we finally have the biography Flexner deserves and readers seek.
Though [Abraham] Flexner wrote an autobiography, until now we have had no comprehensive biography. Fortunately, Thomas Bonner has filled that gap with Iconoclast: Abraham Flexner and a Life in Learning. As a former university president with significant experience working with donors, Bonner is well qualified to understand his subject.
As Thomas Bonner relates in his excellent biography, [Abraham] Flexner initiated several... significant developments in American secondary and higher education over some three-quarters of a century.
Iconoclast captures the boldness as well as the sweeping impact of Flexner's work in the field of American education in the first half of the twentieth century.
If you want to know why more than half of the Nobel Prizes in medicine and science since 1945 have gone to Americans, you must read Thomas Bonner's book. Abraham Flexner was the architect of a revolution in medical education in the United States that explains how this country became the medical mecca of the world. Bonner brings Flexner's remarkable story to life with clarity, sympathy, and verve.
At last we have a life of one of the most powerful shapers of medicine, science, and higher education. This beautifully crafted life of Flexner will rescue a giant of his times from fragmentation and, sometimes, misunderstanding. Bonner has written not only a very important book but a deeply thoughtful and searching interrogation of recurrent social and moral problems that take on life and meaning in a concrete, historical setting.
Abraham Flexner was one of the great innovators in education of the twentieth-century. Thomas N. Bonner, a distinguished historian as well as an educator/manager, is the biographer Flexner deserves.
This biography is a solid, well-researched study of a towering figure in American biomedical research.
This is a brilliant, beautifully crafted, and much needed biography of one of the legendary figures in American medicine and higher education. Once again Thomas Bonner has shown that he is one of the great medical historians of our time.
About
Book Details
Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6.125
x 9.25
Pages
424
ISBN
9780801871245
Illustration Description
25 halftones
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1. "Our Children Will Justify Us"
Chapter 2. A University Like No Other
Chapter 3. Mr. Flexner's School
Chapter 4. Breaking Free
Chapter 5. A Legend Is Born
Chapter 6. Master of the
Introduction
Chapter 1. "Our Children Will Justify Us"
Chapter 2. A University Like No Other
Chapter 3. Mr. Flexner's School
Chapter 4. Breaking Free
Chapter 5. A Legend Is Born
Chapter 6. Master of the Survey
Chapter 7. A Secure Berth–At Last
Chapter 8. At the Pinnacle
Chapter 9. A Fall from Olympus
Chapter 10. Phoenix Rising
Chapter 11. A Last Hurrah
Chapter 12. Final Battles
Chapter 13. "I Burn That I May Be Of Use"
Notes
A Note on Sources
The Published Writings of Abraham Flexner
Acknowledgements
Index
