The Journey of Life: A Cultural History of Aging in America (Canto original series) [Paperback]

Thomas R. Cole (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521595797 | ISBN-13: 978-0521595797 | Publication Date: August 28, 1997

The Journey of Life is both a cultural history of aging and a contribution to public dialogues about the meaning and significance of later life. The core of the book shows how central texts and images of Northern middle-class culture, first in Europe and then in America, created and sustained specifically modern images of the life course between the Reformation and World War I. During this long period, secular, scientific, and individualist tendencies steadily eroded ancient and medieval understandings of aging as a mysterious part of the eternal order of things. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, however, postmodern images of life's journey offer a renewed awareness of the spiritual dimensions of later life and new opportunities for growth in an aging society.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cole, an associate professor at the University of Texas, here explores the evolution of societal attitudes toward aging, gender and familial ideals from antiquity to the present, discussing both political and philosophical influences. He devotes a major portion of this excellent and accessible scholarly study to examining a wide variety of religious beliefs, many of which envision life as a spiritual pilgrimage. However, with the rise of secular individualism, today's "scientific management" of aging has prolonged the life span, Cole observes, and liberated older men and women of many burdens and duties. On the other hand, he contends, the elderly have been deprived of their traditional cultural roles, special functions and positions in society. Furthermore, he notes, with a youth-oriented culture that tends to consider aging a chronic disease, the spiritual aspects of growing old and of death as natural parts of the life cycle have been slighted. Illustrations.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

What has it meant to be old? With the increasing interest in aging, medical and self-help books are crowding our shelves. This work challenges the assumption of value-free studies of aging and offers a critical evaluation of the meanings of aging in American society. Deftly interweaving religion, economics, gender, health trends, and science, Cole documents the period from the Reformation to post-World War I. Tracing the decline of religious values, the rise of the economic pressures of individualism, and the reliance on scientific management of health, he offers new insights into patterns of behavior. An excellent addition to the literature on aging, this book presents complex information in a clear and engaging style.
- Jan Blodgett, St. Mary's Cty. Records Ctr. & Archives, Leonardtown, Md.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 298 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (August 28, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521595797
• ISBN-13: 978-0521595797
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #923,158 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Thomas R. Cole is the McGovern Chair in Medical Humanities and Director of the McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics UT Health in Houston. Cole graduated from Yale University (B.A. Philosophy, 1971), Wesleyan University (M.A., History, 1975) and the University of Rochester, (Ph.D., History, 1981).
Dr. Cole has published many articles and several books on the history of aging and humanistic gerontology. His book The Journey of Life: A Cultural History of Aging in America (Cambridge University Press, 1992) was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He is senior editor of What Does It Mean to Grow Old? (Duke, 1986), the Handbook of Humanities and Aging (Springer, 1992, 2nd edition 1999) and Voices and Visions: Toward a Critical Gerontology (Springer, 1993). Other co-edited books include The Oxford Book of Aging (noted by the New Yorker as one of the most memorable books of 1995), Practicing the Medical Humanities (2003).
Cole's interest in the life stories of older people has taken him into biography and film-making. In 1984, he encountered a hospitalized psychiatric patient who claimed he was the "original Texas integration leader." Their collaboration resulted in a book--No Color Is My Kind: the Life of Eldrewey Stearns and the Desegregation of Houston (1997) - and an accompanying film, The Strange Demise of Jim Crow, broadcast nationally on over 60 PBS stations and internationally by the State Department. The documentary received numerous awards and was nominated for a regional Emmy and a National Humanities Medal.
Cole's film, Still Life: The Humanity of Anatomy, was an official selection at the Doubletake Documentary Film festival in April 2002. This work explores the special yet unstated relationship between medical students in the anatomy lab and the people who donate their bodies for dissection. In 2001, Cole's writing workshop program for elders was featured in the PBS documentary Life Stories. In 2007, he co-produced Living with Stroke, a prize-winning film about the invisible world of stroke survivors.
Cole is senior editor of the book Faculty Health in Academic Medicine: Physicians, Scientists and the Pressures of Success (Humana, 2009), which explores the impact of the spiritual and economic crises facing academic health centers today.
Cole's work has been featured in the New York Times, National Public Radio, Voice of America, PBS, and at the United Nations. He serves as an advisor to the United Nations NGO Committee on Ageing, the Union for Reform Judaism and various editorial and foundation boards. In 2004-2005, he served as a consultant to the President's Council on Bioethics project on aging and was featured speaker at the AARP/United Nations Briefing Sessions on Aging in February 2009. His most recent book is the co-edited Guide to Humanistic Studies in Aging (Johns Hopkins, 2010). Cole has just produced a unique, collaborative, fictional text in narrative ethics: The Brewsters: An Active Learning Experience in Health Care Ethics (UTHEALTH, 2011), an online version of which is in progress. With Nathan Carlin and Ronald Carson, he is currently writing a textbook, Introduction to Medical Humanities for Cambridge University Press.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How we see death, the aged and aging changes historically, September 5, 2000

By 

Leiah "Have compassion for yourself." (Schenectady, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Journey of Life: A Cultural History of Aging in America (Canto original series) (Paperback)

If you're scared of what awaits you as you age in this country where the frail elderly are too often bereft in short-staffed institutions and by and large exiled from the mainstream of our society no matter where or how they happen to live, you will probably find hope in this book, which shows by historical example that we change. The Journey of Life : A Cultural History of Aging in America is a well written vista of American social perceptions. Tom Cole writes as if he is fascinated by the panorama of his research into how Americans have seen the elderly and aging. He shows us the views we have moved through in strategic detail, not overwhelming us with statistics or boring us with long, dull paragraphs of psycho-social explanations, but carefully exposing the layers of American belief, fear, hope, and socio-economic reality from which have arisen our views of death, aging, and the aged from the early days through the present. From vile, malevolent curmudgeons on their way to the dark pit of annihilation to sweet, harmless fools shuffling through zippedy-doo-da landscapes toward automatic acceptance into a radiant heaven, to the present, where we simply seem to lose our faces in the rush of hyper-productivity and adoration of the sexy young, the American view of the aged and aging constantly changes, reflecting the dominant perceptions of our society.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learn Where Our Beliefs on Aging Originated..., July 17, 2005

By 

McCullers - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Journey of Life: A Cultural History of Aging in America (Hardcover)

Cole provides a rich study of the culture of aging in America. Exhaustively researched, The Journey of Life is a must for gerontologists, policymakers, medical professionals, and anyone who is interested in a deeper understanding of why we believe what we do about aging in America, factors influencing these beliefs, and how they have developed over time. Its academic tone can make for a dry read early on, but overall, very well written and intriguing.

5.0 out of 5 stars All you wanted to know about the subject, January 18, 2011

By 

Millie A. Loeb "Dotsgirl" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Journey of Life: A Cultural History of Aging in America (Hardcover)

This excellent, thoughtful history, based on the author's dissertation is both well researched with strong underpinnings os philosophic depth. I highly recommend it.