Old Age in English History: Past Experiences, Present Issues

At the end of the twentieth century more people are living into their seventies, eighties, nineties and beyond, a process expected to continue well into the next millennium. The twentieth century has achieved what people in other centuries only dreamed of: many can now expect to survive to old age in reasonably good health and can remain active and independent to the end, in contrast to the high death rate, ill health and destitution which affected all ages in the past. Yet this change is generally greeted not with triumph but with alarm. It is assumed that the longer people live, the longer they are ill and dependent, thus burdening a shrinking younger generation with the cost of pensions and health care. It is also widely believed that 'the past' saw few survivors into old age and these could be supported by their families without involving the taxpayer. In this first survey of old age throughout English history, these assumptions are challenged. Vivid pictures are given of the ways in which very large numbers of older people lived often vigorous and independent lives over many centuries. The book argues that old people have always been highly visible in English communities, and concludes that as people live longer due to the benefits of the rise in living standards, far from being 'burdens' they can be valuable contributors to their family and friends.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Old Age in Pre-Modern England 1: Did People in the Past Grow Old? Representations 2: Representations of Old Age in Ancient Greece and Rome 3: Medieval Images of Old Age 4: Old Age in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Experiences 5: Independent Old People: Making a Living in Medieval England 6: The Aged Landless Poor: Work and Welfare in Medieval and Early Modern England 7: Old People and their Families 8: Lives of Expedients: Old People and the Old Poor Law Inventing the Old-Age Pensioner 9: The New Poor Law and the Aged Poor 10: The Campaign for Old-Age Pensions 11: The First Piece of Socialism Britain has Entered upon? - The Introduction of Old-Age Pensions 12: Pensions for the Middle Classes: The Growth of Occupational Pensions Living Longer in a Changing World: the 1830s to 1930s 13: An Unfailing Zest for Life: Images and Self-Images of Older People in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries 14: Work and Retirement: the 1830s to 1930s 15: Kinship does not Stop at the Front Door: Old People and their Families, the 1830s to 1930s 16: Pensions and Pensioners in War and Depression 17: The Menace of an Ageing Population, the 1920s to 1950s 'I Dont Feel Old': The Reinvention of Old Age in the Welfare State 18: A Remarkable Discovery of Secret Need: Pensioners in the 1940s 19: Pensions from Beveridge to the Millennium 20: Shocked into Idleness: The Emergence of Mass Retirement 21: The Family Lives of Old People 22: Inventing Geriatric Medicine 23: You're as old as you Feel: Images and Self-Images of Older People at the End of the Millennium Conclusion 24: Into the Twenty-First Century: An Ageing Society - Burden or Benefit? Bibliography Index

Review :
`Important contribution to English social history' CHOICE `This is a very welcome book ... impressive ... topical range.' Peter Stearns, American Historical Review `This ambitious synthesis, by a major scholar, reminds us of the richness and importance of the field. Pat Thane drives the point home by using historical perspective to comment intelligently on the present and future prospects of old age and the elderly.' Peter Stearns, American Historical Review This book represents a first-rate introduction to the field for nonspecialists, including adepts in other facets of British history interested in linking with the history of old age, and a fruitful compendium for anyone interested in the elderly past or present. `a great deal of valuable information ... exciting stimulus for further analysis.' Peter Stearns, American Historical Review `Thane holds a steady course in the midst of data-rich reports and parliamentary penchants ... Without question, this is a definitive work on the democratization of retirement and is enthusiastically recommended to social scientists of all categories but especially to serious students of aging as a historical phenomenon.' Alice Tobriner, History: Reviews of New Books `With keen insight into the elements of aging - retirement, dependency, poverty, and gender - Thane has fashioned a synthesis at once brilliant and ingenious.' Alice Tobriner, History: Reviews of New Books `A fine work: long, comprehensive, but never tiring. It is written with admirable clarity and feeling and will provide a valuable corrective to the many misconceptions nursed by both professionals and people in the general community about ageing.' Janet McCalman, Australasian Journal on Ageing, Vol 19, No 4 `This is an immensely useful work of reference for those seeking a clear path through a complex history of investigations, acts of parliament, debates and campaigns.' Janet McCalman, Australasian Journal on Ageing, Vol 19, No 4 `She [Thane] shows time and time again the dangers of comparing what she describes as an idealised past with a half-understood present.' John Benson, Social History Today `this is a study which ... appears to display wide learning, considerable subtlety and compelling arguments.' John Benson, Social History Today, `this is a history with an explicit contemporary agenda.' John Benson, Social History Today `the style of writing was so good I read it on one glorious Saturday afternoon in the garden. Anyone interested in retirement planning, the elderly and demographics should read this book. It has excellent references, a detailed bibliography and should certainly be in every pensions library.' SH, Pensions World, Oct 2000. `one of the best books I have ever read on pension issues. It chronicles the old from Roman times to the modern day and is full of vivid quotations.' SH, Pensions World, Oct 2000. `A challenge to all the usual tired, blasted, ragged, shrivelled, chicken-skinned, catnapping, Tiresias-dugged, slack-throated, liver-spotted, incontinent and Celtic Twighlight twaddling assumptions about ageing and old age.' Ian Sansom, The Guardian