The River Home: A Memoir by Dorothy Weil (review)

BOOK REVIEWS sity of Berlin. After the turn of the century, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching commissioned Flexner to conduct a whirlwind survey of the 155 medical schools operating at the time in North America. His report, Medical Education in tbe United States and Canada,published in 1910, was the epitome of muckraking journalism and described in candid detail the sorry state of most of those medical schools. He later conducted two other important surveys, one OIl prostitution in Europe and the second on comparative medical education in Europe. After 1910, armed with his report and backed by enormous philanthropic largesse, Abraham Flexner became an overnight expert on educational matters. As the general secretary of the General Education Board ( GEB) funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, he became a prime mover and shaker in the reform of medical education in America. During his fifteen years with the GEB,he insisted on a fulltime teaching faculty,affiliation of medical schools with universities, and construction of new buildings with wellequipped laboratories, starting what has been called a " Flexnerian Revolution ." He later traveled to Oxford where he gave his famous Rhodes lectures that he later published as a book called Universities. Afterwards,Abraham Flexner became the first director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton,New Jersey,and while there was singularly responsible for enticing Albert Einstein to immigrate to the United States. Professor Bonner,who passed away ten months after the publication of this book, was president emeritus of Wayne State University and a distinguished historian of medical education with several other books to his credit. He was also professor of history and department head at the University of Cincinnati from 1963 to 1967. In this meticulously researched biography of a hitherto neglected giant in medical education,Bonner has successfully synthesized the information available about Abraham Flexner' s life from diverse sources spread over several archives and libraries. He presents a compelling portrait of Flexner full of intrigue and fine detail and rendered in a highly readable format. The book will appeal strongly to a broad nonmedical audience, and certainly should be required reading for medical students,physicians, and medical educators. M. Saleem Seyal University of Louisville Dorothy Weil. Tbe River Home:A Memoil . Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2002. 261 pp. ISBN: 0821414054 ( cloth), 24. 95. ften in our quest to understand the historical significance of transportation,business,and geography,we forget how major rivers shaped the everyday life of those who lived on them. Dorothy Weil reminds us of this in her memoir,Tbe River Home,an account of her life that begins with her childhood experiences in the 1930s. Weil's recollections include stories of living on a steamboat on which she traveled from Omaha to Louisville to Cincinnati,plus details about her school days, artistic endeavors, and marriage. Although Weil' s father served on boats in various capacities,including as a steamboat captain,he often juggled various jobs that contributed to a transient lifestyle. The family' s continual migration and economic struggles often framed his unpredictable contributions to the family' s well being. Weil decided to record her family's story after her father died in 1980. Weil's memoir captures river life through the lens of her family experience. Her older brother by one year,Jim,is a constant presence in Weil's story and he serves as a companion in many of her adventures . Weil's mother is also a regular presence in this memoir,and descriptions of her mother' s stability and strength reflect Weil' s deep respect for her mother. A subtext reveals itself throughout this 64 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY story as Weil exposes the gender dynamics at play on the river and within the family. Although her father's career dictated their constant 111igration along midwestern river routes, her mother's devotion to the family informed Dorothy Weil' s childhood experiences out of which developed her memory of a community along the Ohio River filled with strong, independent women. Throughout their childhood in Omaha,Weil and her brother constantly heard stories about Cincinnati , where her mother' s family lived. These stories about the hills, greenery, and serenity ot this city...