Preface -- Prologue -- About the authors -- Basic concepts i. a life course perspective on aging -- Urban legends of aging : "respect for elders was higher in the past" -- Suggested readings -- Urban legends of aging: "religion is good for your health" -- Focus on the future: conscious aging -- Questions for writing, reflection, and debate -- Global perspective : blue zones for longer life -- Focus on the future : "I dated a cyborg!" -- Focus on the future : late-life learning in the information society -- Basic concepts II. Aging, health care, and society -- Urban legends of aging: health care costs are high because we spend most -- Of the money on old people in the last year of life -- Focus on the future : scenarios for rationing : fiction or forecast -- Urban legends of aging : only 4% of older people live in nursing homes -- Focus on practice : long-term-care insurance -- Focus on the future : genetic screening for alzheimer's disease -- Urban legends of aging : older people are more likely to be victims of crime -- Focus on practice : inheritance in an aging society -- Urban legends of aging : advance directives would have prevented the -- Tragic case of terri schiavo -- Urban legends of aging : the gray lobby has a stranglehold on aging -- Policy in the united states -- Focus on practice: intergenerational programs -- Urban legends of aging : social security is going broke : within a few -- Decades,there won't be any money to pay promised benefits -- Focus on practice : investment decisions for retirement income -- Epilogue: finding your place in an aging society -- Appendix. how to research a term paper in gerontology -- Glossary -- Bibliography 491 -- Photo credits 519 -- Index.