With an original analysis of the impact of the aging of America, Marc Freedman describes hidden opportunities as we consider how to motivate the experience, talent and civic potential of adults who dont want to grow old passively.. Over the next three decades the number of Americans over 56 will double and American life expectancy will increase more than all of the previous gains of the past 5,000 years. The end result is a new stage of life, one as long or longer in duration than childhood or middle age and one spent in unprecedented good health. Yet, as individuals, and as a society, weve shown little imagination or wisdom in determining how to use this gift of a third age.Mark Freedman identifies it not so much as a problem to be solved, but as an opportunity to be seizedprovided we can learn to engage the experience, talent, and civic potential of older adults. At a juncture when t he middle-generation is in the midst of a time-famine struggling to simultaneously raise kids and work long hours on the job, the older generation is awash in free time, poised to succeed women as the trustees of civic life in this country, and abandon the state of limbo unfulfilling for most older Americans. Freedman argues that the phenomenon many portray as our downfall may in fact be our best hope for renewal.