You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The recent increase in scholarly and popular writings about the adult life course reflects a marked surge of interest in the post adolescent, pre-aged years of the life cycle.1 The study of this age group is hardly a new intellectual enterprise. Social scientists and clinicians have been analyzing the actions and experiences
of adults for years. But recent works offer a new avenue of approach in their concentrated focus on adulthood itself and the processes of change and adaptation occurring over the adult life course. Instead of highlighting deviant adult behaviors or assuming that adult life represents the unfolding of childhood and adolescent personal histories, these works emphasize the major influence of contemporary forces in adult life.
The books we review in this essay effectively illustrate many aspects of work in this area. They demonstrate the variety of th