Document Type
Book Review
Publication Date
2014
Publication Source
Journal of Women & Aging
Abstract
How We Die Now: Intimacy and the Work of Dying takes the reader on an engaging journey through the terrain of aging in America, with an emphasis on how our ideas about aging itself have changed the way we view death in the United States and even the way we actually die. This book has an authenticity to it, as Erickson admits that her own experience with aging and death compelled her to enter this world and study from the perspective of insiders, those who care for older adults and the actual elders themselves. Based on hundreds of hours of participant observation and in-depth interviews with eldercare workers and older adults themselves, Erickson critiques our societal response to what she calls the "longevity dividend." Although life expectancy has clearly increased, she suggests that we have not made good use of the extra time. The experience of living longer has many consequences for caregiving, quality of life, long-term care, and at the end, how we approach death.
Inclusive pages
371-372
ISBN/ISSN
0895-2841
Document Version
Postprint
Copyright
Copyright © 2014, from Review of 'How We Die Now: Intimacy and the Work of Dying.' Reproduced by permission of Taylor and Francis Group, LLC, a division of Informa plc. This material is strictly for personal use. For any other use, the user must contact Taylor & Francis directly at this address: permissions.mailbox@taylorandfrancis.com. Printing, photocopying and sharing via any means is a violation of copyright.
Publisher
Taylor and Francis
Volume
26
Issue
4
Peer Reviewed
yes
eCommons Citation
Davis-Berman, Jennifer, "Review of 'How We Die Now: Intimacy and the Work of Dying,' by Karla Erickson" (2014). Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications. 15.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/soc_fac_pub/15
Included in
Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Community-Based Learning Commons, Community-Based Research Commons, Criminology Commons, Educational Sociology Commons, Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, Other Sociology Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons, Social Work Commons
Comments
This document is the author's accepted manuscript, and is provided for download in compliance with the publisher's policy on self-archiving. The version of record may contain minor differences that have come about in the copy editing and layout processes.
Permission documentation is on file.