One hundred members of the Association of British Neurologists: a collective biography for 1933-1960

J Hist Neurosci. 2011 Oct;20(4):338-56. doi: 10.1080/0964704X.2010.532029.

Abstract

This article draws a quantitative portrait of British neurology in the interwar and postwar periods through an analysis of the first 100 members of the Association of British Neurologists. Through its presentation of data, this article argues that the members of the Association of British Neurologists were extremely ambitious and as a whole had attained unusually high levels of social, professional, and civil distinction. It makes this argument through an examination of their social and educational backgrounds, the trajectory of their careers, and their achievements in the form of editorships of journals, professorships in medicine, positions in government, honorary degrees, and other indicators of merit. This collective study therefore offers an explanation for how the Association of British Neurologists transformed from an elite club in the 1930s into an organization that eventually came to represent clinical neurology across Britain.

Publication types

  • Historical Article

MeSH terms

  • Faculty, Medical / history*
  • History, 20th Century
  • Neurology / history*
  • Neurosciences / history*
  • Societies, Medical / history*
  • United Kingdom