Margaret Cruikshank’s Learning to Be Old examines what it means to grow old in America today. The book questions social myths and fears about aging, sickness, and the other social roles of the elderly, the over-medicalization of many older people, and ageism. In this book, Cruikshank proposes alternatives to the ways aging is usually understood in both popular culture and mainstream gerontology. Learning to Be Old does not propose the ideas of “successful aging” or “productive aging,” but more the idea of “learning” how to age.
Featuring new research and analysis, the third edition of Learning to be Old demonstrates, more thoroughly than the previous editions, that aging is socially constructed. Among texts on aging the book is unique in its clear focus on the differences in aging for women and men, as well as for people in different socioeconomic groups. Cruikshank is able to put aging in a broad context that not only focuses on how aging affects women but men, as well. Key updates in the third edition include changes in the health care system, changes in how long older Americans are working especially given the impact of the recession, and new material on the brain and mind-body interconnections. Cruikshank impressively challenges conventional ideas about aging in this third edition of Learning to be Old. This will be a must-read for everyone interested in new ideas surrounding aging in America today.
Margaret Cruikshank is retired from the women’s studies program and the graduate faculty of the University of Maine. She continues as a faculty associate of the Center on Aging.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments Preface Introduction 1: Cultural Myths and Aging 2: Fear of an Aging Population 3: Sickness and Other Social Roles of Old People 4: Overmedicating Old Americans 5: Healthy Physical Aging 6: The Politics of Healthy Aging 7: Gender, Class, Ethnicity and Sexual Orientation 8: Ageism 9: Countercultural Gerontology 10: A Feminist’s View of Gerontology and Women’s Aging Conclusion: The Paradoxes of Aging References About the Author
What People are Saying About This
Catherine S. Murray
Compared to traditional aging texts, Learning to Be Old is superior in that it conveys a critical point of view that is rarely present in most texts.
Terri Promo
A compelling book that reminds us, among other things, that 'the personal is political' when we study women and aging.
Jan Burhmann
This book is unique, in that it 'gets at' the socially-constructed nature of aging better than any other book I've worked with. Cruikshank does a particularly good job of examining and discussing these differences as they relate to the experience of aging.
Margaret Morganroth Gullette
Hard-hitting, crystal-clear, packed with information and zesty quotations, Learning to Be Old deserves its popularity. It is the best introduction to age at the intersections – gender, race, class, sexuality – that a general reader could want.It uncovers a wide range of urgent issues – the minefields of American ageism that younger people need to know about before they get there.
Peggy McIntosh
Learning to Be Old is a book as bold as its title. I have tremendous gratitude for the way Margaret Cruikshank rescues readers from societally induced self-blame. She sends us on our way better able to spend our final decades in informed, conscious, and competent ways, resisting the forces that discount us, but never discounting the reality of aging itself.Cruikshank is a welcome author for people who want to get beyond Hallmark simplicities and be accompanied honestly through the aging process by a vibrant scholar and staunch ally.
Meika Loe
Cruikshank's writing is accessible and timely; she expertly shows how 'old' is a socially scripted reality in an ageist society.
