Ebook: Aging in America: a cultural history
Author: Samuel Lawrence R
- Tags: Ancianos--Estados Unidos--Historia--Siglo XX, Ancianos--Estados Unidos--Historia--Siglo XXI, Envejecimiento--Aspectos sociales--Estados Unidos--Historia--Siglo XX, Envejecimiento--Aspectos sociales--Estados Unidos--Historia--Siglo XXI, Envejecimiento de la población--Estados Unidos--Historia--Siglo XX, Envejecimiento de la población--Estados Unidos--Historia--Siglo XXI, Envejecimiento--Estados Unidos--Historia--Siglo XX, Envejecimiento--Estados Unidos--Historia--Siglo XXI, Envejecimiento -- Estados Unid
- Year: 2017
- Publisher: Langaa RPCIG
- City: Philadelphia
- Language: English
- epub
Aging is a preoccupation shared by beauty bloggers, serious journalists, scientists, doctors, celebrities—arguably all of adult America, given the pervasiveness of the crusade against it in popular culture and the media. We take our youth-oriented culture as a given but, as Lawrence R. Samuel argues, this was not always the case. Old age was revered in early America, in part because it was so rare. Indeed, it was not until the 1960s, according to Samuel, that the story of aging in America became the one we are most familiar with today: aging is a disease that science will one day cure, and in the meantime, signs of aging should be prevented, masked, and treated as a source of shame.
By tracing the story of aging in the United States over the course of the last half century, Samuel vividly demonstrates the ways in which getting older tangibly contradicts the prevailing social values and attitudes of our youth-obsessed culture. As a result, tens of millions of adults...