The End Game: How Inequality Shapes Our Final Years

by Corey M. Abramson

Overview

Winner of the Outstanding Publication Award, Section on Aging and the Life Course, American Sociological Association

Senior citizens from all walks of life face a gauntlet of physical, psychological, and social hurdles. But do the disadvantages some people accumulate over the course of their lives make their final years especially difficult? Or does the quality of life among poor and affluent seniors converge at some point? The End Game investigates whether persistent socioeconomic, racial, and gender divisions in America create inequalities that structure the lives of the elderly.

“Avoiding reductionist frameworks and showing the hugely varying lifestyles of Californian seniors, The End Game poses a profound question: how can provision of services for the elderly cater for individual circumstances and not merely treat the aged as one grey block? Abramson eloquently and comprehensively expounds this complex question.”
—Michael Warren, LSE Review of Books

“The author’s approach situates inequality experienced by older Americans in a real world context and links culture, social life, biological life, and structural disparities in ways that allow readers to understand the intersectionality of diversity imbued in the lives of older Americans…Abramson opens a window into the reality of old age, the importance of culture and the impact it has on shared/prior experiences, and the inequalities that structure them.”
—A. L. Lewis, Choice

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674979680
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	09/04/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	974,902
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Corey M. Abramson is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Arizona.

Table of Contents

Contents
Introduction: The End Game
1. “Old Is a Different Animal Altogether”: The Shared Predicaments of the End Game
2. The Uneven Playing Field: Disparate Contexts and Resources in Old Age
3. Game-Day Strategies: How Prior Experiences Shape Cultural Strategies in the Present
4. Team Dynamics: The Meanings of Social Ties
Conclusion: How Inequality Shapes Our Final Years
Methodological Appendix
Notes
References
Acknowledgments
Index

Editorial Reviews

American seniors face starkly different challenges depending on economic circumstances. The End Game provides a deeper understanding of how inequalities affect the entire passage of our lives.

Robert Reich

Abramson provides a remarkable ethnographic look at four urban neighborhoods inhabited by older Americans. He uses in-depth interviews to explore inequality and how it shapes end-of-life issues in ways never seen before. The author’s approach situates inequality experienced by older Americans in a real world context and links culture, social life, biological life, and structural disparities in ways that allow readers to understand the intersectionality of diversity imbued in the lives of older Americans… Abramson opens a window into the reality of old age, the importance of culture and the impact it has on shared/prior experiences, and the inequalities that structure them.

Choice - A. L. Lewis

Abramson brings a qualitative eye to a topic we have mainly known through statistics—mortality rates, actuarial estimates, and life expectancies. With a refreshing perspective, The End Game brings us close to what people experience as they age, making clear not only that 'aches and pains' are shared across the board but also that access to resources matters enormously for how people manage those difficulties. The book dispels stereotypes over and over; his elderly respondents work to maintain their image, laugh at their failing memories, and smoke marijuana. The book is a terrific contribution to our knowledge of how people actually experience inequality in their later years.

Mario Luis Small

How inequality plays out in our aging population could not be a more important question. The aged are supposedly a group that we have done a good job at protecting with Medicare and Social Security, yet we still see sharp social gradients. This book, the first on the topic, helps to answer that question.

Dalton Conley

Abramson takes readers on a journey through geriatric inequality to show how on the west coast of the U.S. the supposed golden years of post-employment for many individuals is an illusion, and in reality retirement is a corrosive quotidian struggle on body and soul. However, the saddening tone of this ethnographic work serves many purposes by shedding light on: the effects of social networks; rationalizations behind decision-making; greater understanding of general social stratification; and the symbolic as well as practical challenges of growing old in the U.S.… Avoiding reductionist frameworks and showing the hugely varying lifestyles of Californian seniors, The End Game poses a profound question: how can provision of services for the elderly cater for individual circumstances and not merely treat the aged as one grey block? Abramson eloquently and comprehensively expounds this complex question.

Michael Warren

Abramson takes readers on a journey through geriatric inequality to show how on the west coast of the U.S. the supposed golden years of post-employment for many individuals is an illusion, and in reality retirement is a corrosive quotidian struggle on body and soul. However, the saddening tone of this ethnographic work serves many purposes by shedding light on: the effects of social networks; rationalizations behind decision-making; greater understanding of general social stratification; and the symbolic as well as practical challenges of growing old in the U.S.… Avoiding reductionist frameworks and showing the hugely varying lifestyles of Californian seniors, The End Game poses a profound question: how can provision of services for the elderly cater for individual circumstances and not merely treat the aged as one grey block? Abramson eloquently and comprehensively expounds this complex question.
— Michael Warren LSE Review of Books

Abramson provides a remarkable ethnographic look at four urban neighborhoods inhabited by older Americans. He uses in-depth interviews to explore inequality and how it shapes end-of-life issues in ways never seen before. The author’s approach situates inequality experienced by older Americans in a real world context and links culture, social life, biological life, and structural disparities in ways that allow readers to understand the intersectionality of diversity imbued in the lives of older Americans… Abramson opens a window into the reality of old age, the importance of culture and the impact it has on shared/prior experiences, and the inequalities that structure them.
— A. L. Lewis Choice

American seniors face starkly different challenges depending on economic circumstances. The End Game provides a deeper understanding of how inequalities affect the entire passage of our lives.
— Robert Reich, University of California, Berkeley, and former U.S. Secretary of Labor

How inequality plays out in our aging population could not be a more important question. The aged are supposedly a group that we have done a good job at protecting with Medicare and Social Security, yet we still see sharp social gradients. This book, the first on the topic, helps to answer that question.
— Dalton Conley, New York University

Abramson brings a qualitative eye to a topic we have mainly known through statistics—mortality rates, actuarial estimates, and life expectancies. With a refreshing perspective, The End Game brings us close to what people experience as they age, making clear not only that 'aches and pains' are shared across the board but also that access to resources matters enormously for how people manage those difficulties. The book dispels stereotypes over and over; his elderly respondents work to maintain their image, laugh at their failing memories, and smoke marijuana. The book is a terrific contribution to our knowledge of how people actually experience inequality in their later years.
— Mario Luis Small, Harvard University

From the Publisher

Abramson takes a very human approach, involving himself with his subjects. This makes the book all the more powerful, as it allows one to experience the many ways one can be old in the United States. It is a book that every reader, young and old, should pick up.

Journal of Economic Literature - Inas Kelly

Drawing on concepts from social stratification and cultural sociology, Corey M. Abramson demonstrates how key mechanisms of social stratification like health disparities, structural inequalities, culture, and social networks affect later-life experiences. Although the focus of the book is persons ages 65 and older, its messages inform our understanding of inequality more generally…The End Game is an exemplar of theoretically informed, methodologically rigorous qualitative work. The book may well join both long-time classics like Barbara Myerhoff’s Number Our Days and contemporary classics like Eric Klinenberg’s Heat Wave in introducing to a wide audience the indignities, inequities, and occasional joys of aging.

Contemporary Sociology - Deborah Carr

Ethnographies of old age are few and far between, especially those that explore community-dwelling elders, despite the fact that they amount to 95% of the elderly population. Corey M. Abramson’s book, The End Game: How Inequality Shapes Our Final Years, with its insightful exploration of later life and the inequalities that shape it, is an especially welcome addition to the literature… Abramson’s book offers something of value to all readers, and its critical message concerning age inequalities is one they should take to heart.

American Journal of Sociology - Toni Calasanti