The Unseen Elderly: A Study of Marginally Subsistent Hotel Dwellers

Both scholarly and readable, "The Unseen Elderly" provides a fascinating study of elderly persons who live in the marginal social and economic environments of single-room occupancy hotels in America's inner cities. Urban anthropologist J. Kevin Eckert lived and worked in such hotels in the redeveloping area of downtown San Diego for over a year while he conducted this unique examination of the lives, values, norms, and special problems of the elderly residents and persons with whom they interacted. This book gives new information and fresh insight into the lives of a little studied category of the elderly and a unique perspective on the total environment of the downtown area of a major city. Originally published in 1980.