Author Description

Drawing on several hundred printed and recorded autobiographical recollections and life story interviews with three generations of families, this book by Britain's preeminent oral historian provides a unique view of later life. Little has ever been written by historians about growing older in earlier generations, and because sociologists and gerontologists, policy experts, and health researchers have concentrated on problems--reinforcing common images of old age as a time of dependence, incapability, and withdrawal--the typical experience of aging today has never been revealed. The men and women in this study--ranging in age from their sixties to their eighties--reject these derogatory images. They have met later life as a an active challenge, and tell of meaningful, fulfilling lives.