We need to create a compelling vision for later life, one that doesn't presume a downward trajectory after the age of fifty but rather sees it as a period of growth, development, and fresh learning?a time when "our courage offers us hope." from Chapter Three. Demographers are now acknowledging the importance of a certain developmental stage that occurs between early adulthood and middle age, when we are "neither young nor old," at a critical juncture in the twenty-first century. Many people in their "third chapters," whether consciously or unconsciously, are figuring out how to adapt, explore, and direct their energies, skills, and passions in new directions. It's this process of creative reinvention that the renowned sociologist Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot details in The Third Chapter, which redefines our views about the casualties and opportunities of aging. She challenges the still-prevailing and anachronistic images of aging by documenting and revealing how the years between fifty and seventy-five may, in fact, be the most transformative and generative time in our lives, tracing the ways in which wisdom, experience, and new learning inspire individual growth and cultural transformation. The Third Chapter is not a how-to guide but a fascinating work of sociology, full of passionate and poignant stories of risk and vulnerability, failure and resilience, challenge and mastery, experimentation and improvisation, and insight and new learning. These stories reveal a whole world of learning and discovery awaiting those who want it. In The Third Chapter, Lawrence-Lightfoot captures a new moment in history and offers us a book rich with insight and hope about our endless capacity for change and growth.