Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 272
•
Trim: 5½ x 9
978-1-4422-5527-2 • Hardback • August 2016 • $44.00 • (£34.00)
978-0-8108-9560-7 • Paperback • November 2017 • $32.00 • (£25.00)
978-1-4422-5528-9 • eBook • August 2016 • $30.00 • (£22.99)
Rosalind C. Barnett, Ph.D, has done pioneering research on workplace issues and family life in America, sponsored by major federal grants. She is senior scientist at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University. Rosalind is a 2013 recipient of the Families and Work Institutes’ Work Life Legacy Award. She is the recipient of several national awards including the Radcliffe College Graduate Society's Distinguished Achievement Medal, the Harvard University Graduate School's Ann Rowe award for outstanding contribution to women's education, the American Personnel and Guidance Association's Annual Award for Outstanding Research, and the Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government's 1999 Goldsmith Research Award. Alone and with others, she has published over 115 articles, 37 chapters, and ten books. She has directed major research projects for the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, and others.
Caryl Rivers is a nationally known author and journalist. She was awarded the Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007 from the Society of Professional Journalists for distinguished achievement in Journalism. She is a professor of Journalism at Boston University. Professor Rivers received the Gannett Freedom Forum Journalism Grant for research on media, the Goldsmith Research Grant, from the Shorenstein Center at the JFK School of Government, Harvard University, for research on gender and media issues, and the Massachusetts Foundation For The Humanities Media Studies Grant to research the ways in which gender, race and class affect news coverage.
1: Reimagining Tomorrow
2: The Creative Spark
3: Productivity--Who Can Keep Up?
4: Side by Side--The Multigenerational Workforce
5: Grey Ambition
6: The Changing Face of Marriage
7: The Seventy-Year Itch
8 The New World of Parenting
9: The Near Frontier
10: Making It Happen
The CDC reports that average life expectancy is at its highest ever—about 81 years for women and 76 for men. Of those Americans who reach the age of 65, one of four will live beyond 90. But this boost in longevity raises important questions: How do we maintain vigor and dampen physical decline? How can we best spend those extra years? How will we adapt to changes in culture and technology? Addressing the stage of late adulthood, between ages 55 and 80, scientist Barnett and journalist Rivers, both recipients of distinguished awards, believe that society must rework its attitudes and timetables about seniors and rethink its institutions (education, career, marriage, parenting). They explore such topics as productivity, learning, creativity, sexuality, and medical advances (stem cells, tissue engineering, and nanotechnology). Age-related boundaries, they observe, are beginning to blur. The authors quote psychologist Ellen Langer, who counsels, 'People are all too aware of their limits and not at all aware of their possibilities.' This optimistic book forecasts a future of flux, hope, and opportunity, a new world of longevity.— Booklist
There’s lots of good news in this panoramic view of a longer-living population from Barnett and Rivers. Among the highlights are that older workers are actually creating more jobs for younger people through their participation in the economy. The authors further shatter the myth that retiring baby boomers are going to drain government funding. There are challenges, however, including multigenerational workplaces, shifting family sizes, and skyrocketing education costs, all of which the authors’ abundant research and proposed scenarios address. VERDICT A thorough study of the present and an impressive predictor of the future.— Library Journal
One can't read this book without concluding that age is only a mindset. If you're over fifty, you may find yourself cheering out loud. If you're under fifty, you 'll certainly find your stereotypes about aging challenged. No matter how old you are, you will gain renewed respect for the abilities that come with age.— Ellen J. Langer, professor of Psychology, Harvard University; author of Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Psychology of Possibility, Mindfulness, and The Power of Mindful Learning
Barnett and Rivers enlighten us with everything you need to know about living longer. Prepare to be captivated by the exciting possibilities and new realities that the future holds for us all.— Margie E. Lachman, Phd, Minnie and Harold Fierman Professor of Psychology and Director of Lifespan Initiative on Healthy Aging and Lifespan Lab, Brandeis University; Editor of the Handbook of Midlife Development
Rosalind Barnett and Caryl Rivers make a clarion call for reframing what aging and longevity are all about. They demand that we move beyond “what everyone knows” about aging and that we reject the “still syndrome”: Are you still working, are you still thinking, are you still alive? Through data and first-hand accounts, they document the creativity, productivity, happiness, and contributions of older adults and of older old adults.— Robert B. Hudson, Boston University
“The authors, Rosalind C. Barnett and Caryl Rivers, masterfully weave a narrative that melds quantitative research with qualitative accounts from researchers, business persons and older adults... Through the use of myriad examples and anecdotes, an optimistic picture of the future is painted: many older adults continue to be highly creative, valuable members of the workforce.
Whilst the overarching message is that older adults can achieve much of the success of their younger colleagues, these thoughts are grounded in reality and supplemented with strategies for accommodating the challenges of ageing.
There has been ongoing work on the extension of life beyond the limits of current human lifespan that may offer individuals hundreds of years of longevity. Chapter Nine (‘The Near Frontier’) highlights the advances in medical research that may facilitate these extreme lifespans and some of the implications of these regenerative body parts. Finally, the authors provide a well-articulated summary of the previous chapters’ take-home messages. Overall, an engaging read for anyone interested in what the future might hold for an ageing population.”
— Theodore D. Cosco, Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, University of Oxford; chair, Unit for Lifelong Health & Ageing
November 7, 2016 Psychology Today article by Rosalind C. Barnett, and Caryl Rivers "The New Productive Workforce: Seniors, Time to Retire the Rocking Chair"https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/womans-place/201611/the-new-productive-workforce-seniors