Nobody's Burden

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This is the first book-length study of the experience of old age during the Great Depression. Part history, part social critique, the contributors rely on archival research, social history, narrative study, and theoretical anaysis to argue that Americans today, as in the past, need to rethink old-age policy and accept their shared responsibility for elder care. The Great Depression servies as the cultural backdrop for this argument, illustrating that during times of social and economic crisis, society's ageism and the limitations in old-age care become all the more apparent. At the core of the book are vivid stories of specific men and women who applied for old-age pensions from a private foundation in Detroit, Michigan, between 1927 and 1933. Mose applicants who received pensions became life-long clients, and their lives were documented in great detail by social workers employed by the foundation