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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Old age in the old regime
— image and experience in eighteenth-century France | | Author(s) | David G Troyansky |
| Publisher | Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1989 |
| Pages | 260 pp |
| Source | Cornell University Press, 124 Roberts Place, Ithaca, New York 14850, USA. |
| Keywords | Ageing process ; Attitudes to the old of general public ; Histories ; France. |
| Annotation | Social and cultural history are combined to explore changes in French attitudes toward ageing and older people in the 18th century, from one extreme of ridicule and neglect to another of care and respect. A demographic and anthropological overview of old age in the Ancien Régime sets the scene. Images of older people in art and literature are discussed. At the heart of the 18th century changes in attitude lay a process of Enlightenment secularisation, which downplayed the role of the afterlife and encouraged the idea of coping with the longevity, free from previously imposed religious constraints. Scientific study focused on older people's diseases and ailments, as specialisation took hold of medical thinking. Doctors proposed ways of permitting older people to participate as active members of society. Subsequent chapters explain the cultural shift in attitudes in the context of the demographic, domestic, social, economic, and legal situation. Rural and urban contexts for ageing are examined through use of records and archives. Revolutionary legislators' attempts at introducing old age insurance and assistance set an agenda for social policy for the next two centuries. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-000211219 B |
| Classmark | BG: TOB: 6A: 765 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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