ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of key concepts that are discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The history of age and ageing has received increasing attention in recent years, psychologists, economists, sociologists, gerontologists, geographers and historians have all begun to recognise that age could often did constitute a crucial determinant of economic, social and cultural life. However, such recognition remains remarkably limited and unbalanced. Those concerned with the effects of age and ageing continue to concentrate their attention upon just three stages of the life cycle: childhood, adolescence and old age. There has been a long-standing, though often sentimental and rather whiggish concern with the nation's children: the ways in which they were brought up, the work that they were expected to do, and the relationships that they formed with parents, teachers, employers and the wider world.
