W. Andrew Achenbaum – författare

2023 Nautilus Gold Award Winner 

Later life, for all the challenges and changes that come with it, is a time to embark upon a uniquely exciting adventure. It is, in many ways, an inner journey, one of deepening our understanding of our lives and our selves by tapping into the rich cache of experiences that have assembled silently inside of us through the years. When viewed with insight, openness and wonder, aging is an adventure in truly growing older, rather than-passively, resignedly-getting older.   

In Fairy Tale Wisdom, authors Bill Randall, Barbara Lewis, and Andy Achenbaum crawl inside an assortment of fables, parables, and other stories that they recall from their childhood and revisit them as older adults. They re-read-and re-member-timeless tales like Hansel and Gretel, The Ugly Duckling, The Tortoise and The Hare, plus many others, through the lens of the still-unfolding stories of their own lives, with all the losses and loves, the layers and learning that 70-odd years involve.  

Reflecting on these stories with a blend of playfulness and seriousness, the authors find themselves asking questions, making out patterns, and stumbling onto truths (not always comfortable) to which they might otherwise be blind. This delightful book is an invitation to see these old tales with fresh eyes and celebrate the wisdom that lurks between the lines of your own life.

This book offers a unique multigenerational approach to saving Social Security. Public programs have adapted to societal aging, but fears overwhelm hopes for Social Security’s future prospects. Conservatives want to privatize operations that liberals seek to expand. Younger workers are happy that Social Security protects their elders, but most do not expect benefits when needed. Achenbaum reframes conflicting perspectives and offers new models of respectful transgenerational dialogue that can mobilize pragmatic reforms.

Designed for use in gerontology, social work, and public policy courses, Safeguarding Social Security for Future Generations offers measured hope for leaving a legacy that safeguards the common good.

This book offers a unique multigenerational approach to saving Social Security. Public programs have adapted to societal aging, but fears overwhelm hopes for Social Security’s future prospects. Conservatives want to privatize operations that liberals seek to expand. Younger workers are happy that Social Security protects their elders, but most do not expect benefits when needed. Achenbaum reframes conflicting perspectives and offers new models of respectful transgenerational dialogue that can mobilize pragmatic reforms.

Designed for use in gerontology, social work, and public policy courses, Safeguarding Social Security for Future Generations offers measured hope for leaving a legacy that safeguards the common good.

This book seeks to map out the parameters and boundaries of soulful aging and explores philosophical and theological perspectives on the way we grow older. It extends work in the behavioural and social sciences which address the diverse and contested connections of older people’s inner voices and social relationships. Building on qualitative and quantitative research in age studies and gerontology, this volume extends concepts and stories that attest to the joys, tensions, and paradoxes that mount with advancing years. From ten authors versed in writing from multi-disciplinary and inter-professional perspectives with clarity, the book conjoins and challenges behavioural thoughts-and-actions and religious/spiritual spheres of late-life human development previously presented in the context of positive and productive aging as well as healthful, wise, and successful ‘Saging’.

Interdisciplinary and insightful, Soulful Aging will be a key resource for scholars and researchers of religion, theology, philosophy, psychology, gerontology, and sociology. It was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Religion, Spirituality & Aging.

This book seeks to map out the parameters and boundaries of soulful aging and explores philosophical and theological perspectives on the way we grow older. It extends work in the behavioural and social sciences which address the diverse and contested connections of older people’s inner voices and social relationships. Building on qualitative and quantitative research in age studies and gerontology, this volume extends concepts and stories that attest to the joys, tensions, and paradoxes that mount with advancing years. From ten authors versed in writing from multi-disciplinary and inter-professional perspectives with clarity, the book conjoins and challenges behavioural thoughts-and-actions and religious/spiritual spheres of late-life human development previously presented in the context of positive and productive aging as well as healthful, wise, and successful ‘Saging’.

Interdisciplinary and insightful, Soulful Aging will be a key resource for scholars and researchers of religion, theology, philosophy, psychology, gerontology, and sociology. It was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Religion, Spirituality & Aging.