Crossing frontiers
Subtitle: gerontology emerges as a science
By: W. Andrew Achenbaum.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York, NY, USA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 278
Subjects: Gerontology -- United States -- History
Description: Although philosophers, physicians, and others have long pondered the meanings and experiences of growing older, gerontology did not emerge as a scientific field of inquiry in the United States until the twentieth century. The study of aging borrows from a variety of other disciplines, including medicine, psychology, sociology, and anthropology, but its own scientific basis is still developing.

Crossing Frontiers is the first book-length study of the history of gerontology. By tracing intellectual networks and analyzing institutional patterns, W. Andrew Achenbaum explores how old age became a "problem" worth investigating and how a multidisciplinary orientation took shape. Gerontology is a marginal intellectual enterprise but its very strengths and weaknesses illuminate the politics of specialization and academic turf-fighting in U.S. higher education.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.