Retiring Men

This book explores how aging men struggled to sustain identities as workers, breadwinners, and patriarchs—the core ideals of twentieth-century masculinity—in the midst of increasing employer demands for the speed and stamina of youth in workplaces and the expansion of mandatory retirement policies in the age of Social Security.

Gregory Wood is assistant professor of history at Frostburg State University. His articles and reviews have appeared in Journal of Social History, Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas, Labor History, Pennsylvania History, Essays in Economic & Business History, Michigan Historical Review, Labour History (Australia), and The Jim Crow Encyclopedia.

List of Tables Acknowledgments Introduction Manhood and Its Discontents Chapter 1 - Growing Old at Work during the Early Twentieth Century Chapter 2 - Old Age Poverty, Pension Politics, and Gender during the 1920s Chapter 3 - Older Men and the Boundaries of Manhood during the 1930s Chapter 4 - Postwar Manhood and the Shock of Retirement Chapter 5 - Work, Play, and Gender: The Making of Retirement Culture Beyond the Masculinity of Youth? Bibliography