| Review | Journal of Social History, 40.4

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| Review | Journal of Social History, 40.4 | The History Cooperative

REVIEWS

A History of Old Age. Edited by Pat Thane (Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2005; London: Thames and Hudson, 2005. 320 pp. $49.95).
"Sumptuous" is the first word to describe A History of Old Age. Exquisite reproductions depict elders in fine art and popular culture—masterpieces, portraitures, sketches, stained glass, folk art, sculpture, cartoons, lithographs, pottery, movies and television clips. For this most comprehensive compilation of ageold, old-age art to date, readers must thank Pat Thane, one of Britain's most prolific and respected social (welfare) historians. (She edited with Paul Johnson Old Age from Antiquity to Post-Modernity [1998].) To this visual feast Thane solicited felicitous and judicious commentaries by seven experts on the history of old age in western culture since the Classical era. Through graphics and words A History of Old Age traces the variegated continuities, change, and universalities of old age, while acknowledging distinctive features in each era.	1
"Throughout history real life was as richly diverse in old age as in literature and the visual arts. Over time, this diversity has increased, especially over the past century, as it has become normal to grow old," argues the editor in her Introduction, anticipating themes embellished in the chapters that follow. "Many more people live, and are fit, to later ages and they pursue a greater variety of lifestyles. The story of old age is a much more hopeful one than, all too often, we were led to believe" (p. 28).	. . .

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