The Coming Age Revolution (When Growing Older Will Be Great)

Judith E. Franchuk is a librarian in the Cameron Library at the
University of Alberta.

Stackhouse expresses his passion for exposing ageism as another form of
prejudice by comparing his vision of the “coming age revolution” to
the gender and race revolutions that we have seen. In support of his
idea, he first briefly addresses myths such as the diminished learning
capacity of older people. Next, he addresses life as a senior (basically
the over–60 crowd) with respect to many major facets of life: work,
power, health, money, and love. By providing a chapter for each of these
aspects, Stackhouse is able to address stereotypes surrounding the
elderly and then provide ideas representing alternative perspectives to
those stereotypes as well as specific examples of older people who defy
them. Lastly, the author suggests a philosophy to underpin the “coming
age revolution.”

Two things will strike the reader immediately. First, the information
presented is rarely cited. Stackhouse states in the acknowledgements
that this is not an academic book; references are not directly
acknowledged. Instead, he suggests that the bibliography contains all of
the resources used. Second, the author (a member of the group he writes
about) presents his information in a way that sometimes makes the reader
wonder which parts of this work are research-based fact, which parts are
anecdotes picked up here and there, and which parts are simply a mixture
of Stackhouse’s own beliefs and experiences; a good measure of each
seem to be the ingredients for this work.

The value of The Coming Age Revolution lies in the author’s
narrative. The number of ideas and the qualitative feel of
Stackhouse’s “story” makes his book a gold mine of ideas for
readers and researchers interested in a positive perspective on the
elderly and the possibilities within reach for people over 60.