| Aging in the Past |
| PREFACE |
| CONTRIBUTORS |
 | PART ONE INTRODUCTION |
| One Necessary Knowledge: Age and Aging in the Societies of the Past |
| • | Why Do People Have to Know About Aging in the Past? |
| • | The Historical Demography of Aging |
| • | The Aging of National Populations |
| • | The Secular Shift in Aging |
| • | Relative Historical Constancy in Aging Before the Secular Shift |
| • | Duration of Life at Every Age and Age Composition Historically Considered: The Rectangular Survival Curve |
| • | Aging by Locality and by Social Group |
| • | Experiential Measures in the Historical Demography of Aging |
| • | Aging in France and England in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: an Illustrative Example |
 | The Secular Shift in Aging: Its General Historical Position and its Outcomes |
| • | The Emergence of the Third Age |
| • | Climacteric in the Middle of the Twentieth Century |
| • | Age Trajectories Over the Secular Shift in the West and in Some Countries of East |
| • | Conclusion: Processional Knowledge |
| • | Appendix: Indicators for Comparison of Longevity |
| • | References |
| PART TWO LIVING ARRANGEMENTS |
| Two Elderly Persons and Members of Their Households in England and Wales from Preindustrial Times to the Present |
| Three The Elderly in the Bosom of the Family: La Famille Souche and Hardship Reincorporation |
| Four Household Systems and the Lives of the Old in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Hungary |
| Five Migration in the Later Years of Life in Traditional Europe |
| Six Older Lives on the Frontier: the Residential Patterns of the Older Population of Texas, 1850-1910 |
| Seven A Home of One's Own: Aging and Home Ownership in the United States in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century |
| PART THREE WIDOWHOOD |
| Eight The Impact of Widowhood in Nineteenth-Century Italy |
| Nine The Demography of Widowhood in Preindustrial New Hampshire |
| Ten Transition to Widowhood and Family Support Systems in the Twentieth Century, Northeastern United States |
| PART FOUR RETIREMENT AND MORTALITY |
| Eleven The Impact of Aging on the Employment of Men in American Working-Class Communities at the End of the Nineteenth Century |
| Twelve Trends in Old Age Mortality in the United States, 1900-1935: Evidence from Railroad Pensions |
| PART FIVE CONCLUSION |
| Thirteen Toward a Historical Demography of Aging |
| Notes |
| INDEX |