Many older people, indeed the majority, have many years of relatively good health after the usual retirement age. Contrary to widely accepted stereotypes, evidence indicates that those who wish to use their skills and abilities for productive contributions may encounter significant barriers.Bass, Caro, and Chen and the experts who contributed to the volume provide an original reassessment of the current options available to older people. The authors argue that polices, practices, and societal messages help determine what choices are realistically open to older individuals. The attitudes and policies of family, workplace, and government as well as those of educational and religious institutions all contribute to defining what opportunities really are available for older people. The authors show, too, that considerations of gender and ethnicity are powerful in their impact on what those in the later years of life may or may not do. Although leisure is attractive to many in their elder years, the authors stress that it is but one of the number of choices that should be available. Employment, volunteering, and other new productive roles should not be denied to those who want to continue them and who, in the process, enrich their own and society's well-being. The authors provide authoritative analysis and new perspectives on aging.

The authors examine roles, both social and economic, which older people in good health can successfully fulfill. They urge a broadening of the options available to us as we age that extend beyond leisure activities and family involvement.

Preface by Scott A. BassAchieving a Productive Aging Society by Francis G. Caro, Scott A. Bass, and Yung-Ping ChenAge, Productivity, and Transcendence by Harry R. MoodyLabor Market Obstacles to Productive Aging by Joseph F. Quinn and Richard V. BurkhauserAgeism in the Labor Market versus Productive Aging by Alan Walker and Philip TaylorNew Technologies and the Aging Work Force by David C. Mowery and Mark S. KamletIs Unretirement Unprecedented? by W. Andrew Achenbaum and Malcolm H. MorrisonFormal Volunteer Work Among Older Americans by A. Regula Herzog and James N. MorganCaregiving and Productive Aging by Pamela Doty and Baila MillerThe Political Economy of Productive Aging: Long-term Care by Laura Katz OlsonReligious Institutions and Productive Aging: Lost Traditions/Horizons Reclaimed by W. Andrew AchenbaumThe Lessons of Television: Learning Productive Aging as a Social Role by George GerbnerA Strategy for Productive Aging: Education in Later Life by Harry R. MoodyWomen's Lives, Women's Work: Productivity, Gender, and Aging by Martha HolsteinCultural and Ethnic Contexts of Aging Productively Over the Life-Course: An Economic Network Framework by James S. Jackson, Toni C. Antonucci, and Rose C. GibsonContinuing Limits on Productive Aging: The Lesser Rewards for Working Women by Karen C. HoldenConclusion: Defining the Place of the Elderly for the 21st Century by Robert MorrisIndex