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How longer lives, greater prosperity, and policy shifts are reshaping aging and retirement
Once considered a period of frailty and physical decline, aging and retirement have transformed into a chapter of continued vitality and growth for many Americans. Indeed, medical advancements and government policies have opened opportunities for people to live longer and healthier lives.
Written from the perspective of a retired historian, On Retirement reveals how and why retirement, aging, and longevity have emerged as prominent issues in the United States. Daniel Horowitz assesses the factors that have shaped these discussions, from dramatic increases in life expectancy to shifting government policies. He explores how writers and entrepreneurs have seen and promoted long lives through movies, print and new media, senior housing, how-to books, and aging organizations. While popular media often enforces self-governance narratives to achieve a “successful” retirement, Horowitz examines how this success is often only accessible through expensive and time-consuming avenues. Moreover, he assesses the socioeconomic and existential challenges most Americans encounter as they age, shaping the choices available to them post-retirement.
Ultimately, Horowitz shows that popular “self-help” perspectives on longevity have failed to account for how dramatic inequalities shape American experiences with retirement. Providing an expansive look into the history of retirement and seniors' profound fears surrounding finance, health, and longevity, On Retirement examines the changing demographics that have allowed people to live longer and healthier lives and offers a critical assessment of popular retirement advice.
— Gary Cross, author of Free Time: The History of an Elusive Ideal
"America has been getting older by the minute—and has been for decades. We’ve done so the way we do everything: loudly, chaotically, and democratically. In On Retirement, Daniel Horowitz listens in on that conversation, brilliantly distilling retirement manuals and magazines and TikToks into an elegant narrative about an aging America."
— James Chappel, Duke University, author of Golden Years
"This landmark book does something no one has done in nearly fifty years: it treats retirement and later life as a major cultural, political, and moral invention—and asks whether our institutions have caught up. Filled with revealing insights into advice manuals, scientific studies, movies, senior housing, and the rise of groups like AARP, a leading cultural historian shows how a stage of life once defined by decline has been reimagined as a time of purpose and even adventure—though only for those with the means to claim it. If longer lives are the great social achievement of the postwar era, then building the supports to make those lives livable for everyone is the great unfinished task. Anyone who is old, loves someone who is old, or plans to become old should read this book."
— Steven Mintz, author of The Prime of Life: A History of Modern Adulthood
"A must read for anyone seeking to understand the policy choices, media markets, and capital investments shaping retirement today, Horowitz's On Retirement combines compelling cultural critique with personal experience to explain the past and map the future of aging in America."
— Corinne Field, author of The Struggle for Equal Adulthood: Gender, Race, Age, and the Fight for Citizenship in Antebellum America