No Country for Old Age - by Mischa Honeck (Paperback)

About the Book

"Since the birth of their nation, Americans have acted on the belief that theirs was a land of youth, a place destined to offer a fresh start to an aging world. No Country for Old Age tells this story from the founding period to our present moment, but not without exposing its darker side: rejuvenation has often bred grand expectations before ending in division and despair. Mischa Honeck reveals how Americans of diverse backgrounds have sought not only to feel and look younger but also to breathe new life into their communities. Whether marching under the banners of science, public health, sexual liberation, physical fitness, nation-building, or world peace, these youth seekers have tended to paint their ventures in utopian colors. However, from the founders to today's Silicon Valley elites, anti-aging ventures have repeatedly magnified social inequalities, often projecting visions of society that were unmistakably classist, racist, misogynist, and ageist. Today we are experiencing rejuvenation's Janus-faced legacy: as transhumanists rhapsodize about cyber-enhancing human bodies, ghastly pandemics, old-age poverty, and shrinking life expectancies are poised to become the new normal for many twenty-first-century Americans"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Since the birth of their nation, Americans have acted on the belief that theirs was a land of youth, a place destined to offer a fresh start to an aging world. No Country for Old Age tells this story from the founding period to our present moment, but not without exposing its darker side: rejuvenation has often bred grand expectations that end in division and despair.

Mischa Honeck reveals how Americans of diverse backgrounds have sought not only to feel and look younger but also to breathe new life into their communities. Whether marching under the banners of science, public health, sexual liberation, physical fitness, nation-building, or world peace, these youth seekers have tended to paint their ventures in utopian colors. However, from the founders to today's Silicon Valley elites, anti-aging ventures have repeatedly magnified social inequalities, often projecting visions of society that have been unmistakably classist, racist, misogynist, and ageist. Today we are experiencing rejuvenation's Janus-faced legacy: As transhumanists rhapsodize about cyber-enhancing human bodies, ghastly pandemics, old-age poverty, and shrinking life expectancies are poised to become the new normal for many twenty-first-century Americans.

Review Quotes

"Honeck . . . demonstrates in his monograph No Country for Old Age that the United States of America has always claimed to be young . . . [and] provide[s] a version of US history that can certainly help us understand the current development of this not-so-young democracy."--H-Soz-Kult

"In a tour de force, Mischa Honeck presents a fresh look on American history through the lens of America's struggle against fading youth. In elegant prose, amusing anecdotes, and sharp analyses, No Country for Old Age takes its readers from George Washington to Jane Fonda and from Valley Forge to Silicon Valley's transhumanist hopes of the twenty-first century. The book is a page-turner."--Jürgen Martschukat, Erfurt University

"Mischa Honeck's No Country for Old Age is meticulously researched, a compelling read, and an important contribution to our understanding of the politics of aging in American culture. Honeck's sophisticated use of age and aging as historical analytics allows us to rethink the past and future of our bodies, the technologies that maintain and modify them, the social meanings they bear, and the political work they do."--Gabriel Rosenberg, Duke University and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

About the Author

Mischa Honeck is professor of North American history at the University of Kassel, Germany.