Finding the Fountain of Youth: The Science and Controversy behind Extending Life and Cheating Death. By Aharon W. Zorea. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2017. 389 pages. Acid-free $71.20 (ISBN 978-1-4408-3798-2). E-book available (978-1-4408-3799-9), call for pricing

The untimely death of his wife inspired Aharon W. Zorea to write about the universal desire to extend life. Dr. Zorea had touched briefly on the topic of antiaging in Steroids (Greenwood, 2014), a reference book in which he outlined the medical and social debates surrounding the use of steroids to enhance human performance. In Finding the Fountain of Youth: The Science and Controversy behind Extending Life and Cheating Death, he traces the history of humankind’s obsession with youth and longevity, and he provides fascinating perspectives from myth, religion, philosophy, science, and sociology.

While postindustrial society has distanced itself from magic and myth, we remain firmly attached to the dream of eternal youth. Americans spent more than $40 billion on cosmeceuticals in 2016 (1). A professor of history, Dr. Zorea contextualizes the major advances in biomedical research that have fueled the dreams of the antiaging movement and increased the appetite of consumers for life extension treatments and amateur remedies. He introduces the research-based methods that are being used to promote greater life expectancy, such as dietary restriction, hormonal manipulation, steroid treatment, stem cell therapy, and gene therapy. He also provides a glimpse into futuristic technologies envisioned to achieve radical life extension, such as genetic manipulation, bioprinting, cloning, cryonics, and transhumanism.

This engrossing book is organized into three well-developed sections: “The History of Antiaging from Myth to Modern Science: A Chronological History of an Idea,” “Modern Paths to the Fountain of Youth: A Topical Approach to the Practice of Antiaging,” and “Views from the Experts: An Anthology of Views on the Implications of a Successful Antiaging Movement from a Spectrum of Disciplines.” The author makes references to information sources throughout the text; however, he omits the complete citations for the references. The lack of a cited references section would render the task of finding any of these sources an arduous undertaking. There is an eleven-page bibliography at the end titled “References for Further Reading” that lists critical sources organized according to the book chapters in section 1. This would be useful only to those interested in further exploring the intellectual history of antiaging.

Finding the Fountain of Youth offers an interdisciplinary understanding of the complexity of the quest to extend the human lifespan. It would make an affordable addition to public and undergraduate libraries but should be located in the circulating stacks so as to allow a close reading of the entire book. To support those who are mainly interested in evidence-based antiaging medicine and regenerative technologies, the more expensive Encyclopedia of Clinical Anti-Aging Medicine and Regenerative Biomedical Technologies (American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, 2012) is the only comprehensive reference source on antiaging medicine available.—Valerie Mittenberg, Collection Development Librarian, Sojourner Truth Library, State University of New York at New Paltz