Carole Haber

Old age and the search for security : an American social history

Preface Introduction: Historians and the History of Old Age in America 1. The Families of the Old 2. Wealth and Poverty: The Economic Well-Being of the Aged 3. Work and Retirement 4. The Threat of the Almshouse 5. Advice to the Old 6. A New History of Old Age Notes Index

In search of ‘intimacy at a distance’: Family history from the perspective of elderly women

Abstract Traditionally, the elderlys historical status in America has been protrayed as evolving from rural-based authority to urban-centered powerlessness. Both twentieth-century advocates for the old as well as many recent scholars have depicted the nostalgic farm household as the ideal arrangement for the old, and assumed that the autonomous household structure of the old is based on urban neglect and abandonment. When viewed through the perspective of elderly women who resided on the farm, in the city, and in the village, this interpretation cannot be sustained. At the turn of the century, elderly farm widows were the most dependent of all women. In contrast, financially secure women in urban and especially village areas were far more likely to remain heads of their households and establish “intimacy at a distance” with their offspring. These historical preferences then have implications for understanding the residential patterns of today. Rather than neglect, the living arrangements of the old women reflect the impact of Social Security; residential autonomy is no longer the privlege of a few, but has become the preferred pattern of the majority.

From senescence to senility: the transformation of senile old age in the nineteenth century

Senility, in the public mind, generally conjures up the most negative stereotypes of old age: the elderly man, bent and wrinkled, deprived of all reason; the debilitated widow whose ramblings make little sense. Although modern gerontologists argue that the great majority of elderly persons never experience senility (and many professionals wish to avoid the term entirely), the belief persists [l] . To be old is to be senile, to face the last years of life beset by overwhelming and irreversible illness.