Prime Time

This text aims to remedy the problem of the neglect of the middle-aged in social history and sociology studies. It examines how middle age has changed since the 1700s and considers what these changes have meant for the middle-aged themselves and for society at large.

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Numerous studies consider the history of childhood, adolescence and old age, yet the middle aged, consistently the most productive and powerful of age groups have been consistently ignored. In this pioneering study John Benson considers how perceptions and experience of middle age have changed, and how its power-base has diminished, affected by the steady ageing of the population the increasing independence of the yound and growing economic insecurity. This thought-provoking study also illuminates the whole economic, social and cultural history of twentieth-century Britain.