The Owl of Minerva flies only at dusk: Understanding our fate as time and place in history (D-Day + 65)

Article of the month – on aging issues

D-Day – June 6, 1944 – and then 65 years later……….

Welcome to another segment of the Rogue Scholarship on Aging research article-of-the month and in this edition I highlight a remarkable investigator – Glen H. Elder, Jr. – in the field of aging and an example of his latest scholarship effort (along with his co-authors).

The article:

The Lifelong Mortality Risks of World War II Experiences

But first some roguish commentary about this edition topic – and the article of the month.

In the field of gerontology, I am constantly amazed at the wide degree of latitude that represents the intersecting topics across the horizon of aging. And in my classes at the university, I try to indicate how one can (and should) go from the MICRO to the MACRO when trying to capture the aging experience. But I am (too often) guilty of backsliding toward the MICRO end of the scale and become obsessed with the latest and greatest in the domain of pleasurable reductionism that is all things biogerontological; that is, I am all over the most current new releases ranging from free radicals to telomeres to SENS to nanontechnological “stuff” that would weave into the aging organism. It is here that my mind gets jacked by the holy grail nuances of where the HOW and WHY of aging will be discovered. Yes, yes…of course, there is the psychological, the economical, and the sociological issues of aging, but talk to me about the radical evolution to be found in biotechnology and aging and I am robotically smitten.

But every now and then, the scholarship of aging in the social and behavioral sciences just simply trumps (and trounces) the academic fireworks in the biomedical field. For example, I consider The Journey of Life: A Cultural History of Aging in America by Thomas R. Cole (1997 – Canto Edition) to quite simply one of the finest publications on our field. There are times when we need the larger – MACRO view on the domain of aging and we are fortunate to have several scholars who can cover the landscape and provide the bird’s eye view for perspectives on the aging experience over time and as heavily influenced by our time in the place of history. Yes, that’s right HISTORY – perhaps to you and me, but those who lived in it – through it – it is their story and their identity – for all of life. And we too shall have our time and place – here I am thinking of the aging baby boomers – and it will be studied and reflected upon with quantitative and qualitative research, and despite the hypervelocity by which some think our future will greet us (can you say – hyperreality?), there is always the past and the formative experiences that cross-cut and polish, that expand and crush, that punish and elevate our existential selves under the onslaught of time.

We will need the microscope and the diary to understand aging. We should embrace the technology and the ontology if we are to discover the essence of life.

And so it is refreshing – and with highest respect – that I highlight a long-time (and long-term) contributor to the scholarship in the domain of sociology, demography and psychology in the field of aging. Glen H. Elder, Jr.

Here we have scholarship to serve as a gold template to think about our parents and grandparents (generationally speaking) – and then think about the cohorts to follow – and the monumental disruptions of war and conflict – and the ripple effect of tragedy and surviving.

 The Lifelong Mortality Risks of World War II Experiences (July, 2009)

Glen H. Elder, Jr

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, glen_elder@unc.edu

Elizabeth C. Clipp  Duke University Medical Center

J. Scott Brown Miami University at Oxford, Ohio

Leslie R. Martin La Sierra University

Howard S. Friedman University of California, Riverside

Research on Aging, Vol. 31, No. 4, 391-412 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0164027509333447

In this longitudinal study of American veterans, the authors investigated the mortality risks of five World War II military experiences (e.g., combat exposure) and their variation among veterans in the postwar years. The male subjects (n = 854) were members of the Stanford-Terman study, and 38% served in World War II. Cox models (proportional-hazards regressions) were used to compare the relative mortality risk associated with each military experience. Overseas duty, service in the Pacific theater, and exposure to combat significantly increased the mortality risks of veterans in the study. Individual differences in education, mental health in 1950, and age at entry into the military, as well as personality factors, made no difference in these results. In conclusion, a gradient was observed such that active duty on the home front, followed by overseas duty, service in the Pacific, and combat exposure, markedly increased the risk for relatively early mortality. Potential linking mechanisms include heavy drinking.

Glen H. Elder, Jr.

 

Glen H. Elder, Jr., Research Professor of Sociology and Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been involved in the development of life course studies as a field of inquiry. He has investigated the Great Depression in the lives of Americans, the impact of military and wartime experiences in the life course and health of U.S. veterans, and the effects of urban poverty as well as rural change on families. Using Add Health data, he is currently investigating pathways of risk and resilience to the young adult years. He co-directs the Carolina Population Center’s training program on aging. He has also served on the faculties of the University of California (Berkeley) and Cornell University. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Elder has served as Vice-President of the American Sociological Association (1989), and as President of the Sociological Research Association (1999) and of the Society for Research on Child Development (1995-97). His books (authored, co-authored, edited) include Children of the Great Depression (1974; 1999, expanded edition), Life Course Dynamics (1985), Children in Time and Place (1993), Families in Troubled Times (1994), Examining Lives in Context (1995), Developmental Science (1996), Methods of Life Course Research (1998), and Children of the Land: Adversity and Success in Rural America (2000: William J. Goode Award). http://www.unc.edu/~elder/