This book reflects on how our understanding and experience of health at later ages in particular can impact on social and technological developments.

The nature of health in later life has conventionally been studied from two perspectives. Medical sociologists have focused on the failing body, chronic illness

Three-quarters of deaths in the U.S. today occur to people over the age of 65, following chronic illness. This new experience of "predictable death" has importa

The aging of the population of the United States is occurring at a time of major economic and social changes. These economic changes include consideration of in

Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction A New York Times Bestseller Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Winner o