Winter Dreams: A Historical Guide to Old Age

by Barbara H. Rosenwein

Winter Dreams is an evocative history of the ways the old have thought, felt and expressed themselves over two millennia, tracking the experience of ageing through artistic, literary and historical records. While old age is often depicted as ‘sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything’, Barbara H. Rosenwein shows that the elderly have always retained their emotional depth and desires. She explores how these have changed over time, as societies’ views of the elderly and of a ‘good’ old age have changed. And through careful exegesis, she allows the elderly, so often absent from the historical record, to speak to us.
We live in a rapidly ageing society, yet ageism is rampant and death and dying are taboo subjects. Rosenwein’s book is a finely wrought testimony to the value of ageing and the richness of our Winter Dreams.

Genres: Nonfiction

264 pages, Hardcover

Published September 9, 2025

About the author

Prof. Barbara Rosenwein was the Humanitas Visiting Professor in Historiography at the University of Oxford for the year 2014-2015.

Barbara H. Rosenwein (Ph.D. (1974), B.A. (1966), University of Chicago) is a professor at Loyola University Chicago. An internationally renowned historian, she has been a guest professor at the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France; the École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France; the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, and most recently at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Since 2009, Rosenwein has been an affiliated research scholar at the Centre for the History of the Emotions at Queen Mary University in London. She was a scholar in residence at the American Academy in Rome in 2001-2002 and was elected Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America in 2003.

Reviews

[Christine Sampson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book looks at attitudes to aging from pre Roman times to the present day. It’s a meandering in form and sometimes too inclusive to wit I find it hard really to recall any real headline or interesting snippet. Suffice to say the author got on my wick with this ‘BCE’ etc referencing. It distracts me and feels like a problem that didn’t need solving if you ever went to school. Apparently you can be ‘young old’ or ‘old old’. This seems to not really be about chronological age as you can be ‘ old/old’ at 50. Basically, you do better in old age if 1) you have people around you who love you or basically can put up with you, 2) you have money and find things of interest to do and 3) you can move about a bit without the help of others. No surprises there then.

[Greg Bourne · Rating 3 out of 5]

political views

With so many books these days, authors don’t realize that they are purchased for the basic subject matter, and not as a platform to hear the authors, often very opinionated, political views.

[Pam Keevil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent account of the portrayal of older age through history from the Ancient Greeks to the present day. Very detailed and well researched. Each chapter can be read as a stand alone which I enjoyed as I liked to dip from century to century. The only thing I would have liked more of is the inclusion of the portrayal of older age in TV, video, music and social media as I think that would be very illuminating .

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much to be learned from Rosenwein's research and accounting. It's not a fast read but a highly interesting one. If you are a caregiver for the elderly or are yourself approaching that stage in life, you will benefit from her thinking.
Especially liked one of the final chapters, Dignity. Reread parts of initial chapters to wrap up my understanding.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have suggested this for purchase to Metro OKC. It seems like the one reviewer was looking for something different. I think there's an audience for it beyond just me.... The library did buy it. And now I've read it, and, yes, it is recommendable to many different readers.
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Not a perfect book, but fascinating. I think it needs more of some stuff (eg non-Western examples) and less of other stuff (eg examples from modern novels). A better index would be good, too. But I loved learning so much history - normally I don't read history or historical fiction but maybe I should try some more.

Overall, as a 'young-old' or 'green old' person, I do admit I didn't learn hardly anything that I could use to think about my perspective. But I did note a lot of interesting bits.

I appreciate the reminder that low average life expectancy doesn't mean that a person is old at 35 or whatever; the average is brought down by higher infant & child mortality. Evidence: "Mortality profiles of all extant hunter-gatherers reveal an average modal adult lifespan of about 72 years."

Seneca philosophized that one should accept elderly years with dignity and calm even to the point of dementia. But at the same time, he did say that it's okay to hasten the end, even to commit suicide.

"No wonder Europeans and indigenous peoples did not understand each other. Imagine Lear transported to a Great Lakes village with no kingdom to divide and no way to 'shake all cares and business,' since Algonquin elderly had nothing to divide and no way to retire. Or picture Locke conveyed to the American wilderness where labor could not create private property because everyone in the village hunted together on the same lands and fished together on the same rivers.... Elderly men there were not beset by the heartbreak of the exploited Daniel Defoe nor by the misery of the impoverished Edward Messenger. ... Montaigne reported that some natives of Brazil brought to France were 'amazed' that one half of the people were fat and sated, while the other half were 'beggars at their doors, emaciated with hunger.'

"The population of Germany was increasing parentheses as it was everywhere in Europe Arentheses, Growing about 50% between 1750 and 1800, but the German economy could not absorb more people. The rural sector, where about 90% of the population lived, had always suffered from food shortages; now there were still more mouths to feed. ... No German reformer thought of separating impoverished elderly into their own category. If capable of working, even the old were expected to do so."