Overview

A bracing spotlight on the avoidable causes of the COVID-19 eldercide in the United States. Twenty percent of the Americans who have died of COVID since 2020 have been older and disabled adults residing in nursing homes—even though they make up less than one percent of the overall US population. Something about this catastrophic loss of life in government-sponsored facilities never added up. Until now. In American Eldercide, activist and scholar Margaret Morganroth Gullette investigates this tragic public health crisis with a passionate voice and razor-sharp attention to detail, showing us that nothing about it was inevitable. Gullette argues that it was our collective indifference, fueled by ageism, that prematurely killed this vulnerable population, compounded by our own panic about aging and a bias in favor of youth-based decisions about lifesaving care. Walking us through the decisions that led to such discriminations, revealing how governments, doctors, and media reinforced ageist biases, and collecting the ignored voices of the residents who survived, Gullette helps us understand the workings of what she persuasively calls an eldercide. The compassion this country failed to muster for the residents of our nursing facilities motivated Gullette to pen an act of remembrance and a call to action that aims to prevent similar outcomes for all those who will need long-term care.

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Reviews

“A masterpiece. Gullette writes with passion, a critical eye, and an often-sly sense of humor. She shows, in devastating detail, how we as a society failed our elderly population—and the lessons we must learn in order to avoid a similar catastrophe in the future.” * Harry Moody, former Vice President for Academic Affairs, AARP * “Unflinching and powerful. Through fierce and evocative prose, Gullette exposes the harsh realities many older adults faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and lays bare the systemic failures and personal tragedies that unfolded. American Eldercide underscores the urgent need to address ageism in our institutions—and ourselves.” * Tracey Gendron, author of Ageism Unmasked * “American Eldercide should stand beside Betty Friedan’s Fountain of Age and Dr. Robert N. Butler’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Why Survive? Being Old in America as essential reading about aging and ageism in the U.S.. Incisively researched and compellingly written, Gullette's riveting volume underscores the vitality and resilience of so many older Americans, especially those too readily dismissed as expendable by our youth-obsessed medical-industrial complex.” * Paul Kleyman, Co-Founder and National Coordinator, Journalists Network on Generations *

Author Information

Margaret Morganroth Gullette is a cultural critic and anti-ageism pioneer whose prize-winning work is foundational in critical age studies. She is the author of several books, including Agewise, Aged by Culture, and Ending Ageism, or How Not to Shoot Old People. Her writing has appeared in publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian, Atlantic, Nation, and theBoston Globe. She is a resident scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center, Brandeis, and lives in Newton, Massachusetts.

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