Aging in America: The Years Ahead - Hardcover

Winokur, Ed

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1576871932 ISBN 13: 9781576871935

Publisher: powerHouse Books, 2003

Synopsis

Another baby boomer turns fifty every seven-and-a-half seconds. At this rate, by 2030, one quarter of the United States’ population will be over sixty-five, and by mid-century, the senior citizen population is expected to reach eighty million, outnumbering the population of young people for the first time in history.

Aging in America chronicles the immense and unprecedented changes confronting America as advanced age goes mainstream. Photographer Ed Kashi and writer Julie Winokur first began this project as an award-winning story published by The New York Times Magazine. They then began documenting in greater detail a broad range of issues relating to aging, from the upsurge of elderly immigrants following their children to America to a tornado’s exacting toll on a rural elderly community. They traveled with the Loners of America, an RV club for mature singles, and delved into a retirement community where Alzheimer’s patients work in a child daycare facility. They tracked the campaign of a seventy-six year old running for office for the first time, documented a woman launching her modeling career in her sixties, and celebrated the wedding of an octogenarian couple.

“The reality of aging will force us to come to terms with the fact that longevity doesn’t mean eternal youth,” explains Winokur. “America is a society in collective denial of aging. We appreciate vintage in wine, not people.” Changing this perception is the intent of Aging in America, the first comprehensive visual account of contemporary senior living in this country.

About this title

About the Author:

Ed Kashi (Photographer) was born in New York City and received a degree in photojournalism from Syracuse University. Kashi's first major documentary project, a study of the Protestant community in Northern Ireland, garnered him a NEA grant. His book, When The Borders Bleed: The Struggle of the Kurds was the result of his cover story for National Geographic. Kashi has received numerous awards, including the World Press and Pictures of the Year competitions. His photographs have appeared in National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, Time, Fortune, Geo, Smithsonian, Newsweek, Natural History, U.S. News & World Report, The Atlantic Monthly, Audubon, Granta, Aperture, and American Photo, among others. Kashi lives in San Francisco; Julie Winokur's (Essays and Interviews) last book with Kashi is Denied: The Crisis of America's Uninsured. She also co-edited We the Media: A Citizen's Guide to Fighting for Media Democracy. This work led to her involvement in the second annual Media & Democracy Congress in 1997. A freelance writer and editor, Winokur's work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal's Encore Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe, Travel & Leisure, Publishers Weekly, American Photo, and Salon.com, among others. Winokur lives in San Francisco; Doris Roberts (Foreword) has won two Emmy Awards for her role as Raymond's meddlesome mother in "Everybody Loves Raymond," and an additional Emmy for "St. Elsewhere." She has starred in films and on Broadway, receiving an Outer Critic's Circle Award. Her memoir, Are You Hungry, Dear?, will be released this year by St. Martin's Press. Roberts lives in Los Angeles; Dr. Robert Butler (Preface) won the Pulitzer Prize for his book Why Survive? Being Old in America (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003) in 1976. He is the founding director of the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health and founding chairman of the Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. He is Professor of Geriatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and President and CEO of the International Longevity Center, which he established in 1990. Dr. Butler is based in New York.

Review:

"Oldness is an adventure. Stepping into the bathtub, hurrying to the phone, or just going down the stairs presents as much risk as traveling camelback in the Gobi."

About this edition

• Publisher: powerHouse Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1576871932
• ISBN 13: 9781576871935
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256