Research Guides: HIST 223: Old Age in the Modern Age (HC) Fall 2018: Social Conditions

Overviews of Social Factors

Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
This eighth edition provides a good introduction to such important factors for the study of the elderly as changing demographics, economic conditions, politics, options for care, and societal expectations.

Demographic History

"Demography and American Immigration"
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Essay within a rich collection that examines a variety of historical issues: A Companion to American Immigration (2011).
Historical statistics of the United States
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Contains more than 37,000 annual time series of quantitative historical information covering population, work and welfare, economic structure and performance, governance, and international relations. Covers the colonial period to the present.

Social Conditions

The theme of social conditions encompasses many potential topics:

Aging in popular culture, through literature, film, jokes, proverbs, and tropes
Culture and conditions of institutions for care, including asylums, workhouses, nursing homes, and hospice
History of public assistance laws and programs
Challenges in accessing social services
Public opinions about age, aging, and the role of old people in society
Retirement and changing definitions of appropriate retirement age
Planning for retirement, medical needs, and death; financial stability or anxiety

When you are searching for books and articles on your topic, try to separate the topic into two or three major concepts. Then take each concept and brainstorm several synonyms. These will be your key words that you can connect together for a powerful Boolean search. You might also want to consider historical period, geographic location, and the resource formats and methods you're most interested in.

For more information on locating appropriate databases to find articles, see the Journal Articles tab. For more information on locating relevant books, see the Books tab.

Using Subject Headings

Subject Headings are the way librarians catalog items in a very precise way. Because a great many words and phrases can describe a particular item, it’s important to have a controlled vocabulary we all agree on to best organize items. You can always locate an item’s subjects in the record on Tripod or Worldcat (or any other catalog) as well as in the bibliographic matter in the front of a book. Here are some possibilities for subject headings relating to social conditions:

Economic History

Companion to 19th-Century America
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Essay-length pieces on economic, political and social history as well as issues involving popular culture and technology. See in particular essays on industrialization, urbanization, and the growth of the working and middle classes.
Companion to 20th-century America
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Essays cover urban and rural places as well as labor, politics and the economy, business, and consumption. Other subjects include specific time periods, groups of people, and social forces.
Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Offers more than 900 articles with interpretations that emphasize both historical and economic factors.
Women's Figures: An Illustrated Guide to the Economic Progress of Women in America
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window