{"product_id":"9781541619524-golden-years","title":"Golden Years","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHow Americans Invented and Reinvented Old Age\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe surprising history of old age in modern America, showing how we created unprecedented security for some and painful uncertainty for others\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe surprising history of old age in modern America, showing how we created unprecedented security for some and painful uncertainty for others\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn farms and in factories, Americans once had little choice but to work until death. As the nation prospered, a new idea was born: the right to a dignified and secure old age. That project has benefited millions, but it remains incomplete-and today it's under siege. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eGolden Years\u003c\/i\u003e, historian James Chappel shows how old age first emerged as a distinct stage of life and how it evolved over the last century, shaped by politicians' choices, activists' demands, medical advancements, and cultural models from utopian novels to \u003ci\u003eThe Golden Girls\u003c\/i\u003e. Only after World War II did government subsidies and employer pensions allow people to retire en masse. Just one generation later, this model crumbled. Older people streamed back into the workforce, and free-market policymakers pushed the burdens of aging back onto older Americans and their families. We now confront an old age mired in contradictions: ever longer lifespans and spiraling health-care costs, 401(k)s and economic precarity, unprecedented opportunity and often disastrous instability.   \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs the population of older Americans grows, \u003ci\u003eGolden Years\u003c\/i\u003e urges us to look to the past to better understand old age today-and how it could be better tomorrow.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41709288554593,"sku":"9781541619524","price":25.42,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/orig_28312012.jpg?v=1722498593","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9781541619524-golden-years","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}