Robert N. Butler Books
Robert N. Butler (1927–2010) was an American physician, psychiatrist, and gerontologist who founded the National Institute on Aging and coined the term 'ageism.
Known for: Why Survive?: Being Old in America
Books by Robert N. Butler
Why Survive?: Being Old in America
This Pulitzer Prize–winning book by gerontologist Robert N. Butler examines the social, economic, and psychological challenges of aging in the United States. It explores the contradictions in public policy and cultural attitudes toward the elderly, advocating for reforms to improve the quality of life for older Americans.
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Historical Context
The story of aging in America is inseparable from the broader transformations that modernity brought. In an agrarian past, the elderly were woven into daily family life. Their labor, memory, and authority gave them indispensable standing. But with industrialization and urbanization came a dislocatio...
From Why Survive?: Being Old in America
Cultural Attitudes toward Aging
It was in the midst of these observations that I coined the term 'ageism.' The biases directed against older people, whether subtle jokes or institutional discrimination, were no less destructive than other forms of prejudice. Ageism pervades our media, employment practices, and even interpersonal r...
From Why Survive?: Being Old in America
About Robert N. Butler
Robert N. Butler (1927–2010) was an American physician, psychiatrist, and gerontologist who founded the National Institute on Aging and coined the term 'ageism.' He received the Pulitzer Prize for 'Why Survive?: Being Old in America' in 1976.
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Robert N. Butler (1927–2010) was an American physician, psychiatrist, and gerontologist who founded the National Institute on Aging and coined the term 'ageism.
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