Preface. Section I. Theoretical Concerns, "Natural" Aging, and Classical Prescriptions and Representations 1. Introduction: Historians Look at Aging and the Aged 2. Aging among Hunters and Gatherers, Agriculturalists, and Early City Dwellers 3. Old Age in Classical Civilizations: From Asia to the Near East and Mediterranean Section II. Medieval to Early Modern Transformations 4. Aging in Medieval and the Renaissance 5. Early Modern Aging and the Aged Section III. Transitions to Modernity 6. Cultural Transitions and Implications for the Aged 7. Demographic Transitions and Implications for the Aged Section IV. Modernity and Old Age 8. Framing the Old Person as Pensioner and Old Age as a Social Problem in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries 9. Old Age in the Context of Colonialism, Imperialism, and Decolonization 10. Aging and the Welfare State Section V. Globalizing, Medicalizing, and Disciplining Old Age 11. Aging in a Global Context 12. Aging, Medicalization, and the Discipline of Gerontology 13. Aging in Present and Future

David G. Troyansky is Professor of History at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York

In Aging in World History, David G. Troyansky presents the first global history of aging. At a time when demographic aging has become a source of worldwide concern, and more people are reaching an advanced age than ever before, the history of old age helps us understand how we arrived at the treatment of aging in the modern world. This concise volume expands that history beyond the West to show how attitudes toward aging, the experiences of the aged, and relevant demographic patterns have varied and coalesced over time and across the world.
From the ancient world to the present, this book introduces students and general readers to the history of aging on two levels: the experience of individual men and women, and the transformation of populations. With its attention to cultural traditions, medicalization, decades of historical scholarship, and current gerontology, Aging in World History is the perfect starting point for an exploration of this increasingly universal aspect of human experience.