Golden years : how Americans invented and reinvented old age / James Chappel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chappel, James, 1983- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Old age--United States.

Old age.

Retirement--United States.

Retirement.

Aging--Social aspects--United States.

Aging.

Older people--United States--Social conditions.

Older people.

Physical Description:

357 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Basic Books, 2024.

Summary:

"On farms and in factories, Americans once had little choice but to work until death. As the nation prospered, a new idea was born: the right to a dignified and secure old age. That project has benefited millions, but it remains incomplete-and today it's under siege. In Golden Years, historian James Chappel shows how old age first emerged as a distinct stage of life and how it evolved over the last century, shaped by politicians' choices, activists' demands, medical advancements, and cultural models from utopian novels to The Golden Girls. Only after World War II did government subsidies and employer pensions allow people to retire en masse. Just one generation later, this model crumbled. Older people streamed back into the workforce, and free-market policymakers pushed the burdens of aging back onto older Americans and their families. We now confront an old age mired in contradictions: ever longer lifespans and spiraling health-care costs, 401(k)s and economic precarity, unprecedented opportunity and often disastrous instability. As the population of older Americans grows, Golden Years urges us to look to the past to better understand old age today-and how it could be better tomorrow"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: A carousel of progress. Part I: The aged (1900-1940). Who gets to get old?

Social security and its limits

Part II: Senior citizens (1940-1975). Medicare and the independent senior citizen

The invention of retirement

Black pwer, black aging

The end of the future

Part III: Older people (1975-2000). AARP nation

Aging bodies, golden girls

From security to risk

Assisted living

Conclusion: Make America old again

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781541619524

1541619528

OCLC:

1425804791

Publisher Number:

90100658306