Becoming a Physician: Medical Education in Great Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, 1750-1945 Book

This fascinating new study is a sweeping, comparative history of western medical education. Focusing on the social, political, and intellectual milieu in which medical education occurred, Bonner presents a detailed discussion of how medical knowledge was disseminated in the US, UK, France, and Germany, and how these different approaches reflected and affected their different cultures. The book begins by demonstrating how medical education moved out of earlier practices in the eighteenth century and how it changed in the 1800s with the introduction of clinical practices. He goes on to trace the growth of laboratory teaching in the nineteenth century and the twentieth-century concern with establishing a university standard of medical education. Spiced throughout with fascinating insights, the book emphasizes the changing nature of the medical school population and of student life. There is also discussion of the limited role for women and minorities and an assessment of the substantial changes in medical education during World War II, particularly in Germany. The only work of its kind, Becoming a Physician provides an innovative and readable look at this vital subject.