Growing Old in America

Growing Old in America surveys the changing experience of ageing from the eighteenth century into the modern United States. It compares household authority, inheritance, work, health and cultural attitudes across agricultural, industrial and urban societies, asking when old age became a distinct social category rather than simply another stage within family life.

Fischer connects demographic change with pensions, retirement, Social Security, Medicare and other forms of public provision. The book argues that dependence and marginalisation are not inevitable consequences of age: they are shaped by institutions, economic arrangements and ideas about youth, usefulness and dignity.