Robert H. Binstock has been Professor of Aging, Health, and Society at Case Western Reserve University since 1985, following two decades at Brandeis University. A former President of the Gerontological society of America (1975-1976), he has served as director of a White House Task Force on Older Americans (1967-1968) and as chairman and member of a number of advisory panels to the United States government, state and local governments, and foundations. He is presently Chairman of the Gerontological Health Section of the American Public Health Association. Professor Binstock is the author of more than 150 articles on the politics and policies affecting aging, and his 19 books include the… three previous editions of the Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences, The Future of Long-Term Care: Social and Policy Issues (1996, and Dementia and Aging: Ethics, Values, and Policy Choices (1992). Among the honors he has received for contributions to geronotology and the well-being of older persons are the Kent and the Brookdale Awards from the Gerontological Society of America, the Key Award from the American Public Health Association, the American Society on Aging Award, and the Arthur S. Flemming Award from the national Association of State Units on Aging.