Longevity Revolution: As Boomers Become Elders

Front Cover
Berkeley Hills Books, 2001 - Family & Relationships - 347 pages
Three decades after publishing his classic The Making of a Counter Culture -- and after two brushes with death -- Theodore Roszak was forced to confront his mortality and that of a generation of baby boomers who never realized they were subject to the same laws of aging as their predecessors.

In Longevity Revolution, Roszak turns his critical eye to what he calls "the implications of mass longevity as a social phenomenon". Revised for paperback publication, the book counters conventional views of elders as burdens, seeing them instead as the culture's great resource. Roszak explores in detail such critical issues as economics, politics, medicine, ethics, biotechnology, the class divide, and the fetish for youthfulness that dominate American culture. He envisions a world in which elders are honored for their insights, values, and abilities in creating a more compassionate society.

About the author (2001)

Theodore Roszak was born in Chicago, Illinois on November 15, 1933. He received a B.A. from UCLA and a Ph.D. in English history from Princeton University. He taught at Stanford University, the University of British Columbia, San Francisco State University, and California State University, Hayward. His only lengthy departure from academia was when he served as editor of Peace News in London during 1964 and 1965. His writings and social philosophy have been controversial since the publication of The Making of a Counter Culture in 1968. His other nonfiction works include Where the Wasteland Ends, Person/Planet, The Voice of the Earth, The Cult of Information, and Ecopsychology: Healing the Mind, Restoring the Earth. He also wrote several novels including Flicker, The Devil and Daniel Silverman, and Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein, which won the Tiptree Award. He died of cancer on July 5, 2011 at the age of 77.

Bibliographic information