Thomas Bonner made a long academic career, teaching medical history and higher education at several American universities and presiding over three of these. He engaged in politics for 2 years. As a historian of medicine, he published important books on topics including Midwestern medicine, medical education in the United States and in European countries, the entry of women into medicine in the 19th century and on the educator Abraham Flexner. His works were based on exhaustive research, penetrating analysis, language skills and the ability to explain complex information in understandable terms. Bonner lived a passionate life of commitment and devotion to various worthwhile causes.
LudmererKM. Thomas Neville Bonner (1923–2003). Bulletin of the History of Medicine2004; 78: 462–446.
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Information supplied by Sylvia Bonner.
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BonnerTN. The unintended revolution in America’s colleges since 1940. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning1986; 18: 44–45.
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BonnerTN. Medicine in Chicago, 1850–1950: a chapter in the social and scientific development of a city, London: Holborn Publishing Co, 1958.
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BonnerTN. Dr. Nathan Smith Davis and the growth of Chicago medicine 1850–1900. Bulletin of the History of Medicine1952; 26: 360–374.
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Two reviews of Bonner’s ‘Chicago Medicine’ are Stenn F. Thomas Neville Bonner. Medicine in Chicago: A Chapter in the Social and Scientific Development of a City. Bulletin of the History of Meicine 1958; 32: 92; Blake JB. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 1958; 13: 117–119.
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BonnerTN. The Kansas doctor: a century of pioneering, Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 1959.
8.
Two reviews of Bonner’s ‘The Kansas Doctor’ are Allen MS. Thomas Neville Bonner. The Kansas Doctor: A Century of Pioneering. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 1960; 34, 386–387; Hashinger EH. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 1960; 15: 103–110.
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Bonner TN. American doctors and German universities: a chapter in international intellectual relations 1870–1914, Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1963.
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Two reviews of Bonner’s ‘American Doctors and German Universities’ are Guttentag OE. Thomas Neville Bonner. American Doctors and German Universities: A Chapter in International Intellectual Relations. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 1964; 38: 94–95; Shryock RH. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 1964; 19: 309–310.
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BonnerTN. German doctors in America – 1887–1914: their views and impressions of American life and medicine. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences1959; 14: 1–17.
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Two obituaries by Lurie E. Thomas Bonner: He led Wayne State as President. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 2004; 59: 290–292; May J. Detroit Free Press, 10 August 2003.
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Conversations with Thomas N Bonner, President Wayne State University, 1978–1982. Oral history interviews conducted by Philip P Mason, WSU, 1998.
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BonnerTNSketches of Mary Harris Thompson, Sarah Hackett Stevenson, and Marie Mergler. In: JamesET (ed). Notable American Women, 1607–1950, Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press, 1971.
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BonnerTN. Medical women abroad: a new dimension of women’s push for opportunity in medicine, 1850–1914. Bulletin of the History of Medicine1988; 62: 58–73.
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NerTN. Pioneering in women’s medical education in the Swiss Universities 1864–1914. Gesnerus (Swiss Journal of the History of Medicine and Sciences)1988; 45: 461–473.
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BonnerTN. Rendezvous in Zurich: seven who made a revolution in women’s medical education, 1864–1874. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences1989; 44: 7–27.
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BonnerTN. To the ends of the Earth: women’s search for education in medicine, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.
19.
Ibid.: Preface.
20.
Three reviews of Bonner’s ‘To the ends of the Earth’ are Ludmerer KM. Thomas Neville Bonner. To the Ends of the Earth: Women's Search for Education in Medicine. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 1993; 67: 590–592; Elston MA. Medical History 1993; 37: 346; Giesberg JA. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 1994; 49: 456–457.
21.
Alexander W. First ladies of medicine. Glasgow 1988. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 1989; 63: 161–162; Brinkschulte E (ed) Weibliche Aerzte, Berlin 1993. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 1997; 71: 176–177. Peitzman SJ. A new and untried course: woman s medical college and medical college of Pennsylvania, 1850–1998. New Brunwick and London 2000. Medical History 2002; 46: 450–452.
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BonnerTN. Educating physicians in the nineteenth century. Selected titles bearing on the subject in the collections of the NLM, Bethesda: MD, 1988.
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BonnerTN. The German model of training physicians in the United States, 1870–1914: how closely was it followed?Bulletin of the History of Medicine1990; 64: 18–34.
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BonnerTNGerman influences on American clinical medicine, 1870–1914. In: GeitzHHeidekingJHerbstJ (eds). German influences on education in the United States to 1917, Baltimore: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
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BonnerTN.Becoming a physician: medical education in Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, 1750–1945, New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
26.
Four reviews of Bonner’s ‘Becoming a Physician’ are Brockliss LWB. Thomas Neville Bonner. Becoming a Physician: Medical Education in Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, 1750–1945. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 1996; 51: 522–523; Jacyna LS. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 1997; 71: 345–346; Ramsay M. Medical History 1998; 42: 249–250; Bickel MH. Gesnerus (Swiss Journal of the History of Medicine and Sciences) 2002; 59: 122–123.
27.
BurnhamJC. What is medical history?, Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2005, pp. 114–114.
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BonnerTN. The American way of educating doctors. Review of American History2001; 29: 158–164.
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LudmererKM. Time to heal. American medical education from the turn of the century to the era of managed care, Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
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BonnerTN. Abraham Flexner as critic of British and continental medical education. Medical History1989; 33: 472–479.
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BonnerTN. The historical reputation of Abraham Flexner (1866–1959). Academic Medicine1989; 1: 17–18.
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BonnerTN. Abraham Flexner and the historians. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences1990; 45: 3–10.
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BonnerTNAbraham Flexner and the German University. In: HeidekingJHerbstJ (eds). Mutual influences on education: Germany and the United States in the twentieth century, Gent: Paedagogica Historica, 1997, pp. 99–116.
34.
BonnerTN. Iconoclast, Abraham Flexner and a life in learning. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.
35.
Two reviews of Bonner’s ‘Iconoclast’ are Grob GN. Thomas Neville Bonner. Iconoclast: Abraham Flexner and a Life in Learning. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 2004; 59: 311–312; Hudson R. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 2004; 78: 246–247.
36.
BonnerTNHillDWWilberGL. The contemporary world: the social sciences in historical perspective, Englewood Cliff, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1960.
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BonnerTN. Our recent past: American civilization in the twentieth century, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1963.
38.
Information supplied by Marc W Kruman from Wayne State University, Detroit, MI.
39.
Bonner TN. The devil they knew. Adventures in higher learning. Unpublished autobiographical fragments.
