New Passages: Mapping Your Life across Time
People are taking longer to grow up and much longer to grow old. A fifty-year-old woman -- who remains free of cancer and heart disease -- can expect to see her ninety-second birthday. Men, too, can expect a dramatically lengthened life span. The old demarcations and descriptions of adulthood -- beginning at twenty-one and ending at sixty-five -- are hopelessly out of date. In New Passages, Gail Sheehy discovers and maps out a completely new frontier -- a Second Adulthood in middle life.\...
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THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Millions of readers literally defined their lives through Gail Sheehy's landmark bestseller Passages. Seven years ago she set out to write a sequel, but instead she discovered a historic revolution in the adult life cycle. . . People are taking longer to grow up and much longer to die. A fifty-year-old woman—who remains free of cancer and heart disease— can expect to see her ninety-second birthday. Men, too, can expect a dramatically lengthened life span. The old demarcations and descriptions of adulthood—beginning at twenty-one and ending at sixty-five—are hopelessly out of date. In New Passages, Gail Sheehy discovers and maps out a completely new frontier—a Second Adulthood in middle life."Stop and recalculate," Sheehy writes. "Imagine the day you turn forty-five as the infancy of another life." Instead of declining, men and women who embrace a Second Adulthood are progressing through entirely new passages into lives of deeper meaning, renewed playfulness, and creativity—beyond both male and female menopause. Through hundreds of personal and group interviews, national surveys of professionals and working-class people, and fresh findings extracted from fifty years of U.S. Census reports, Sheehy vividly dramatizes these newly developing stages. Combining the scholar's ability to synthesize data with the novelist's gift for storytelling, she allows us to make sense of our own lives by understanding others like us.New Passages tells us we have the ability to customize our own life cycle. This groundbreaking work is certain to awaken and permanently alter the way we think about ourselves."SHEEHY CLEARLY STATES IDEAS ABOUT LIFE THAT HAVE NEVER BEFORE BEEN AS CLEARLY STATED."—Los Angeles Times Book Review"AN OPTIMISTIC ANALYSIS OF ADULT DEVELOPMENT IN PESSIMISTIC TIMES. . . It is grounded in the economic and psychological realities that make adult life so complex today."—The New York Times Book Review Library Journal The author's previous blockbuster, Passages (LJ 5/15/76), introduced us all to the term "midlife crisis." In this sequel, Sheehy takes us beyond the midlife crisis to examine later life stages, with a short update on young adulthood in the 1990s. In a few ways, this is a better book than its predecessor. Sheehy pays closer attention to the influence of history on the life course of individuals. She also addresses the main criticism that social scientists have made of her work-that large-scale studies have shown no evidence that most people go through the life stages that she describes-by explaining that people should go through these "passages" and that everyone who doesn't is "walking dead." These improvements aside, her prose still sounds like that of a second-rate astrologer, her advice is often contradictory, and her adulation of famous personalities verges on embarrassing. Nevertheless, this is a "critic-proof" book-if you haven't already done so, order multiple copies to satisfy reader demand. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/95.]-Mary Ann Hughes, Neill P.L., Pullman, Wash.
Note from the AuthorixBook 1First AdulthoodPrologue: Oh, Pioneers!3Updating the Passages ConceptWhat to Do With This Leftover Life?The Discovery ProcessNew Cross-Cultural EvidencePart 1Whatever Happened to the Life Cycle?I.Mapping Lives Across Time23Which Generation Are You Traveling With?World War II GenerationSilent GenerationVietnam GenerationMe GenerationEndangered GenerationWelcome to Provisional AdulthoodThe Good NewsPart 2The Flourishing Forties2.The Vietnam Generation Hits Middlescence57Who Me, an Adult?Out of Control3.Men Redefining Success67Rise of the Nonworking ClassThe Double SqueezeThe Pharmaceuticals Salesman, Age 48The Auto Worker, Age 46A Black Man's Bonus Time, Age 40A Wunderkind's Handicap, Age 40The Wunderkind Growing Up, Age 47The New Midlife Man4.Out-of-Sight Women85A Woman in Early Midlife CrisisCatch-40 for CouplesBeyond "Me"--to Another Level of Being5.The Fantasy of Fertility Forever95Late BabymaniaThe Great PostponersThe Psychic FalloutWhat Do You Mean, My Eggs Are Too Old?But Susan Sarandon Did ItThe Facts on InfertilitySo Glad I Didn't WaitThe Race6.Perpetual Middlescence115Holding the EdgeA Woman Addicted to Success, Age 52Frozen in TimeSingle Men: What Are You Doing from Five to Nine?Single Women: Tales from the Naked CityBook 2Second AdulthoodPrologue: A Brand-New Passage137Decline or Progress?From Survival to MasteryThe "Little Death" of First AdulthoodBirth of Second AdulthoodThe Meaning CrisisTime to Kill?Push Toward AuthenticityAliveness or Stagnation?The Time Flies TestSafety or Danger?Part 3Passage to the Age of Mastery7.The Mortality Crisis159Living on the EdgeLittle VictoriesComposing Your Own Progress NarrativePeggy's ProgressGuides and TeachingsPart 4Flaming Fifties: Women8.Women: Pits to Peak179First, the TerrorThe Vanity CrisisThe New Female PacesettersWorking-Class Women: Finding Faith in YourselfSurprise! You're Not Getting Older, You're Getting Happier!Women's Historical Progress Across TimeA Survivor Who Found Passion at 509.Wonder Women Meets Menopause199"I'm Out of Estrogen, and I've Got a Gun"Phase One: The Perimenopause PanicPhase Two: Over the HumpShould I Take Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)?The Breast Cancer PhobiaThe Weight Gain FallacyPhase Three: PostmenopauseCall of the Wild Girl10.From Pleasing to Mastery223On the Privilege of Being 50Moving Toward MasteryFinding One's Own VoiceFrom Anger to ForgivenessPart 5Flaming Fifties: MenII.The Samson Complex243The Male Vanity CrisisThe Aging Athlete, Age 57The Excessed VP, Age 47The Sociable Athlete, Age 59Macho Men Holding the LineBut My Body is Bulletproof!12.Fall Guys of the Economic Revolution259Corporate RefugeesThe Lifer, Age 53The Meant-to-be-President, Age 55Psychic ConsequencesAngry and Anxious White MalesThe New (Hostile) Dependence on WivesReality Testing for the FutureThe Rehabilitation of the Corporate RefugeeThe Company Man as Free Agent, Age 4813.The Optimism Surge274From Competing to ConnectingMen's Anguish Over Empty NestFather, I Hardly Knew YeReinventing FatherhoodThe Start-Over Dad, Age 59The Medlator, Age 4814.The Unspeakable Passage: Male Menopause287I'd Rather Have a Talking FrogThe Problem Without a Proper NameHard Statistics and Hopeful ScienceSex, Lies, and ScorekeepingAm I Just Getting Old?The Mind-Body LinkHigh-Tech SolutionsHigh-Technique SolutionHow to Restore Vitality and VirilityBeyond Male Menopause15.Men and Women: The New Geometry of the Sexual Diamond318A Point of HarmonyBrain-Sex ChangesTake Back Your Diamond!The Crossover CrisisSecrets of Serene PotencyBust-to-Boom Banker, Early FiftiesNew-Age Electrician, Age 52The Save-Your-Life WifeThe Divorce SpringboardVictoria's Real Secret--Sexual Power SurgesFinding Your Passion Without a ManPart 6Passage to the Age of Integrity16.The Serene Sixties345Ready for Prime TimeGrowing BrainThe Hunger for HarmonySpecial Powers of the SixtiesPermission to PlayThe Designer Who Learned to Play at 63Self-Confident SurvivorsThe Wiley Widow, Age 60Love Stories of the SixtiesRekindling Old Flames, Age 77Reconciliations17.Men: Make My Passage369Grand DadsRetirement: Love it or Leave It?The Bush Retirement (Non)PlanThe Carters' Retirement PlanThe Winner's CircleMr. Hat, the Company ManLate-Age EntrepreneurSources of Well-Being in the SixtiesHow Much is Enough?Old Elephants' Club, Age 65Comebacks from HopelessnessThe Cancer Survivor18.Wisewomen in Training394Dreamer Beyond DreamsThe Wit NetworkA Wisewoman Model, Age 60Survivor Sex and Extrasexual PassionsCongratulations, You're a New Grandmother!The New Fly-In Grandmother, Age 56Nurturing: The Second WaveLife and Love Beyond LossCaretakers of the WorldMaster of Divinity at 63Looking AheadExpanding the Wit Network19.Two Species of Aging417Choosing How to AgeRenaissance in the Art of HealthSharpening up for the Sage Seventies and BeyondCelebratory CentenariansThe Present Never AgesAcknowledgments430Appendixes433I.Life History SurveyII.Professional Women's and Men's SurveysIII.Family Circle SurveyIV.New Woman SurveyV.Suggested Readings on MenopauseNotes451Index475
\ Library JournalThe author's previous blockbuster, Passages (LJ 5/15/76), introduced us all to the term "midlife crisis." In this sequel, Sheehy takes us beyond the midlife crisis to examine later life stages, with a short update on young adulthood in the 1990s. In a few ways, this is a better book than its predecessor. Sheehy pays closer attention to the influence of history on the life course of individuals. She also addresses the main criticism that social scientists have made of her work-that large-scale studies have shown no evidence that most people go through the life stages that she describes-by explaining that people should go through these "passages" and that everyone who doesn't is "walking dead." These improvements aside, her prose still sounds like that of a second-rate astrologer, her advice is often contradictory, and her adulation of famous personalities verges on embarrassing. Nevertheless, this is a "critic-proof" book-if you haven't already done so, order multiple copies to satisfy reader demand. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/95.]-Mary Ann Hughes, Neill P.L., Pullman, Wash.\ \ \ From Barnes & NobleUncovering an historic revolution in the adult life cycle, Sheehy traces radical changes for the generations now in their 20s & 30s & finds baby boomers in their 40s rejecting the whole notion of middle age. Defines second adulthood in mid-life.\ \
