Old Age in English History

• Introduction ; OLD AGE IN PRE-MODERN ENGLAND ; 1. Did People in the Past Grow Old? ; REPRESENTATIONS ; 2. Representations of Old Age in Ancient Greece and Rome ; 3. Medieval Images of Old Age ; 4. Old Age in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries ; EXPERIENCES ; 5. Independent Old People: Making a Living in Medieval England ; 6. The Aged Landless Poor: Work and Welfare in Medieval and Early Modern England ; 7. Old People and their Families ; 8. Lives of Expedients: Old People and the Old Poor Law ; INVENTING THE OLD-AGE PENSIONER ; 9. The New Poor Law and the Aged Poor ; 10. The Campaign for Old-Age Pensions ; 11. The First Piece of Socialism Britain has Entered upon? - The Introduction of Old-Age Pensions ; 12. Pensions for the Middle Classes: The Growth of Occupational Pensions ; LIVING LONGER IN A CHANGING WORLD: THE 1830S TO 1930S ; 13. An Unfailing Zest for Life: Images and Self-Images of Older People in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries ; 14. Work and Retirement: the 1830s to 1930s ; 15. Kinship does not Stop at the Front Door: Old People and their Families, the 1830s to 1930s ; 16. Pensions and Pensioners in War and Depression ; 17. The Menace of an Ageing Population, the 1920s to 1950s ; 'I DONT FEEL OLD': THE REINVENTION OF OLD AGE IN THE WELFARE STATE ; 18. A Remarkable Discovery of Secret Need: Pensioners in the 1940s ; 19. Pensions from Beveridge to the Millennium ; 20. Shocked into Idleness: The Emergence of Mass Retirement ; 21. The Family Lives of Old People ; 22. Inventing Geriatric Medicine ; 23. You're as old as you Feel: Images and Self-Images of Older People at the End of the Millennium ; CONCLUSION ; 24. Into the Twenty-First Century: An Ageing Society - Burden or Benefit? ; Bibliography ; Index ; Introduction ; OLD AGE IN PRE-MODERN ENGLAND ; 1. Did People in the Past Grow Old? ; REPRESENTATIONS ; 2. Representations of Old Age in Ancient Greece and Rome ; 3. Medieval Images of Old Age ; 4. Old Age in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries ; EXPERIENCES ; 5. Independent Old People: Making a Living in Medieval England ; 6. The Aged Landless Poor: Work and Welfare in Medieval and Early Modern England ; 7. Old People and their Families ; 8. Lives of Expedients: Old People and the Old Poor Law ; INVENTING THE OLD-AGE PENSIONER ; 9. The New Poor Law and the Aged Poor ; 10. The Campaign for Old-Age Pensions ; 11. The First Piece of Socialism Britain has Entered upon? - The Introduction of Old-Age Pensions ; 12. Pensions for the Middle Classes: The Growth of Occupational Pensions ; LIVING LONGER IN A CHANGING WORLD: THE 1830S TO 1930S ; 13. An Unfailing Zest for Life: Images and Self-Images of Older People in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries ; 14. Work and Retirement: the 1830s to 1930s ; 15. Kinship does not Stop at the Front Door: Old People and their Families, the 1830s to 1930s ; 16. Pensions and Pensioners in War and Depression ; 17. The Menace of an Ageing Population, the 1920s to 1950s ; 'I DONT FEEL OLD': THE REINVENTION OF OLD AGE IN THE WELFARE STATE ; 18. A Remarkable Discovery of Secret Need: Pensioners in the 1940s ; 19. Pensions from Beveridge to the Millennium ; 20. Shocked into Idleness: The Emergence of Mass Retirement ; 21. The Family Lives of Old People ; 22. Inventing Geriatric Medicine ; 23. You're as old as you Feel: Images and Self-Images of Older People at the End of the Millennium ; CONCLUSION ; 24. Into the Twenty-First Century: An Ageing Society - Burden or Benefit? ; Bibliography ; Index

Thane's historical approach effectively demolishes myths of a list golden age for the old, and is an excellent corrective to the kind of social science that refers back to an imagined "traditional society".