Old Age in English History Past Experiences, Present Issues

by Thane, Pat

• ISBN13: 9780198203827
• ISBN10: 0198203829
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-06-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

People are now living well into their seventies, eighties, and even beyond. A tribute to medicine, the trend is also a challenge for governments as the costs of healthcare and retirement continue to grow. But is this really a new trend? And is it a serious problem? This history of old age in England challenges many contemporary assumptions about aging and its role in culture. Tracing the experiences of older people back two thousand years, it shows that in fact there were large numbers of vigorous older people in many periods and that they often made important contributions to their families, friends, and society at large. After discussion of the modern experience of old age, when mass retirement has become the norm, the book argues that we can continue to expect the benefits of an aging society to far outweigh the costs.

Author Biography

Pat Thane is Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Sussex.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	xi
List of Tables	xi
Introduction	1	(16)
Old Age in Pre-Modern England	17	(144)
Did People in the Past Grow Old?	19	(12)
Representations	29	(2)
Representations of Old Age in Ancient Greece and Rome	31	(13)
Medieval Images of Old Age	44	(11)
Old Age in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries	55	(18)
Experiences	71	(2)
Independent Old People: Making a Living in Medieval England	73	(16)
The Aged Landless Poor: Work and Welfare in Medieval and Early Modern England	89	(30)
Old People and their Families	119	(28)
`Lives of Expedients': Old People and the Old Poor Law	147	(14)
Old Age in Modern England	161	(312)
Inventing the Old-Age Pensioner	163	(2)
The New Poor Law and the Aged Poor	165	(29)
The Campaign for Old-Age Pensions	194	(22)
`The First Piece of Socialism Britain has Entered upon'? The Introduction of Old-Age Pensions	216	(20)
Pensions for the Middle Classes: The Growth of Occupational Pensions	236	(23)
Living Longer in a Changing World, the 1830s to 1930s	257	(2)
`An Unfailing Zest for Life': Images and Self-Images of Older People in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries	259	(14)
Work and Retirement, the 1830s to 1930s	273	(14)
`Kinship Does not Stop at the Front Door': Old People and their Families, the 1830s to 1930s	287	(21)
Pensions and Pensioners in War and Depression	308	(25)
The `Menace' of an Ageing Population, the 1920s to 1950s	333	(22)
`I Don't Feel Old': The Reinvention of Old Age in the Welfare State	353	(2)
`A Remarkable Discovery of Secret Need': Pensioners in the 1940s	355	(9)
Pensions: From Beveridge to the Millennium	364	(21)
`Shocked into Idleness': The Emergence of Mass Retirement	385	(22)
The Family Lives of Old People	407	(29)
Inventing Geriatric Medicine	436	(22)
`You're as Old as you Feel': Images and Self-Images of Older People at the End of the Millennium	458	(15)
Conclusion	473	(21)
`Into the Twenty-First Century': An Ageing Society--Burden or Benefit?	475	(19)
Bibliography	494	(23)
Index	517