Old Age from Antiquity to Post-Modernity

Based on themes such as status and welfare, "Old Age" examines the role of the elderly in history. This empirical study represents a substantial contribution to both the historical understanding of old age in past societies as well as the discussion of the contribution of post-modernism to historical scholarship.

Based on themes such as status and welfare, Old Age from Antiquity to Post-Modernity examines the role of the elderly in history. This empirical study represents a substantial contribution to both the historical understanding of old age in past societies as well as the discussion of the contribution of post-modernism to historical scholarship.

1 Historical readings of old age and ageing 2 Ageing in antiquity: status and participation 3 Old age in the high and late Middle Ages: image, expectation and status 4 Ageing and well-being in early modern England: pension trends and gender preferences under the English Old Poor Law c. 1650–1800 5 Balancing social and cultural approaches to the history of old age and ageing in Europe: a review and an example from post-Revolutionary France 6 The ageing of the population: relevant question or obsolete notion? 7 Old age and the health care system in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries 8 Old age in the New World: New Zealand’s colonial welfare experiment 9 The family lives of old people 10 Parallel histories of retirement in modern Britain

Paul Johnson is Reader in Economic History at the London School of Economics. Pat Thane is Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Sussex.