Even when the nuclear family: P. Thane, ed., A History of Old Age (John Paul Getty Museum Press, 2005).
one child usually remained: D. H. Fischer, Growing Old in America: The Bland-Lee Lectures Delivered at Clark University (Oxford University Press, 1978). Also C. Haber and B. Gratton, Old Age and the Search for Security: An American Social History (Indiana University Press, 1994).
the poet Emily Dickinson: C. A. Kirk, Emily Dickinson: A Biography (Greenwood Press, 2004).
surviving into old age was uncommon: R. Posner, Aging and Old Age (University of Chicago Press, 1995), see ch. 9.
They tended to maintain their status … Whereas today people often understate: Fischer, Growing Old in America.
In America, in 1790: A. Achenbaum, Old Age in the New Land (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979).
today, they are 14 percent: United States Census Bureau, http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html.
In Germany, Italy, and Japan: World Bank, http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.65UP.TO.ZS.
100 million elderly: “China’s Demographic Time Bomb,” Time, Aug. 31, 2011, http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2091308,00.html.
As for the exclusive hold: Posner, ch. 9.
increased longevity has brought: Haber and Gratton, pp. 24–25, 39.
Historians find that the elderly … The radical concept of “retirement”: Haber and Gratton.
Life expectancy: E. Arias, “United States Life Tables,” National Vital Statistics Reports 62 (2014): 51.
Family sizes fell: L. E. Jones and M. Tertilt, “An Economic History of Fertility in the U.S., 1826–1960,” NBER Working Paper Series, Working Paper 12796, 2006, http://www.nber.org/papers/w12796.
The average age at which: Fischer, appendix, table 6.
“intimacy at a distance”: L. Rosenmayr and E. Kockeis, “Propositions for a Sociological Theory of Aging and the Family,” International Social Science Journal 15 (1963): 410–24.
Whereas in early-twentieth-century America: Haber and Gratton, p. 44.
The pattern is a worldwide one: E. Klinenberg, Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone (Penguin, 2012).
Just 10 percent: European Commission, i2010: Independent Living for the Ageing Society, http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/ict_psp/documents/independent_living.pdf.
Del Webb: J. A. Trolander, From Sun Cities to the Villages (University Press of Florida, 2011).
2: THINGS FALL APART
trajectory of our lives: J. R. Lunney et al., “Patterns of Functional Decline at the End of Life,” Journal of the American Medical Association 289 (2003): 2387–92. The graphs in this chapter are adapted from the article.
By the middle of the twentieth century: National Center for Health Statistics, Health, United States, 2012: With Special Feature on Emergency Care (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2013).
People with incurable cancers … The curve of life becomes a long slow fade: J. R. Lunney, J. Lynn, and C. Hogan, “Profiles of Older Medicare Decedents,” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 50 (2002): 1109. See also Lunney et al., “Patterns of Functional Decline.”
Consider the teeth: G. Gibson and L. C. Niessen, “Aging and the Oral Cavity,” in Geriatric Medicine: An Evidence-Based Approach, ed. C. K. Cassel (Springer, 2003), pp. 901–19. See also I. Barnes and A. Walls, “Aging of the Mouth and Teeth,” Gerodontology (John Wright, 1994).
the muscles of the jaw lose: J. R. Drummond, J. P. Newton, and R. Yemm, Color Atlas and Text of Dental Care of the Elderly (Mosby-Wolfe, 1995), pp. 49–50.
By the age of sixty: J. J. Warren et al., “Tooth Loss in the Very Old: 13-15-Year Incidence among Elderly Iowans,” Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology 30 (2002): 29–37.
Under a microscope: A. Hak et al., “Progression of Aortic Calcification Is Associated with Metacarpal Bone Loss during Menopause: A Population-Based Longitudinal Study,” Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology 20 (2000): 1926–31.
Research has found that loss of bone density: H. Yoon et al., “Calcium Begets Calcium: Progression of Coronary Artery Calcification in Asymptomatic Subjects,” Radiology 224 (2002): 236–41; Hak et al., “Progression of Aortic Calcification.”
more than half of us: N. K. Wenger, “Cardiovascular Disease,” in Geriatric Medicine, ed. Cassel (Springer, 2003); B. Lernfeit et al., “Aging and Left Ventricular Function in Elderly Healthy People,” American Journal of Cardiology 68 (1991): 547–49.
muscle elsewhere thins: J. D. Walston, “Sarcopenia in Older Adults,” Current Opinion in Rheumatology 24 (2012): 623–27; E. J. Metter et al., “Age-Associated Loss of Power and Strength in the Upper Extremities in Women and Men,” Journal of Gerontology: Biological Sciences 52A (1997): B270.