Full Description
First published in 1957, The Family Life of Old People opens with the question: Are old people isolated from their families? Thereafter, the author describes the results of intensive interviews with people of pensionable age in Bethnal Green in East London. Part one shows that most people are members of closely-knit extended families of three generations, often living in separate households in adjoining streets. The life of these families is of absorbing interest and the social structure of the home, the system of family care and the domestic, economic and social relationships between husbands and their wives, and between old people and their children and brothers and sisters, are carefully analysed. Part two discusses the social problems of old age against this background. This book will be of interest to students of sociology and gerontology.
Contents
Foreword Acknowledgements 1. The Study in Outline 2. Place and People 3. Home and Family 4. Living near Relatives 5. The Family System of Care 6. Man and Wife and the Home Economy 7. Sons and Daughters 8. Brothers and Sisters 9. The Extended Family and the Kinship Network 10. Family and Community 11. Retirement 12. Poverty 13. Isolation, Loneliness and the Hold on Life 14. Who Claim State Care? 15. Keeping the Family Together 16. Conclusion Appendices Index
