Elderhood

"For more than 5 000 years "old" has been defined as beginning between the ages of 60 and 70. That means most people alive today will spend more years in elderhood than in childhood and many will be elders for 40 years or more. Yet at the very moment that humans are living longer than ever before we've made old age into a disease a condition to be dreaded denigrated neglected and denied. Aronson uses stories from her quarter century of caring for patients and draws from history science literature popular culture and her own life to weave a vision of old age that's neither nightmare nor utopian fantasy -- a vision full of joy wonder frustration outrage and hope about aging medicine and humanity itself."--