Age And Identity In Eighteenth-century England

Yallop looks at how people in eighteenth-century England understood and dealt with growing older. Though no word for 'aging' existed at this time, a person's age was a significant aspect of their identity. Aging is a fundamental aspect of the human condition, yet different eras have understood it in very different ways and suggested very different means of defining, measuring and improving it. Yallop looks at how people in eighteenth-century England understood the lifelong process of growing older, in order to reconstruct a set of ideas about age, bodies, identity and change. Advances in science and medicine at this time meant that scholars and doctors could investigate why the body got older, how aging was experienced and what the aging body signified in society. Review: 'This book should appeal to students and other interested in history and ageing, and would be a fine supplement to other texts approaching the same subject matter from different perspectives.' Ageing Society 'An important new study that significantly advances our understanding of the history of aging. Successfully incorporating cultural history methodologies with those of the social history of medicine, Yallop brings together a wide range of sources to paint a nuanced portrait of the eighteenth-century's views of the aging process.' Susannah Ottaway, Carleton College