Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot addresses attendees at the Encore Careers Summit.

The changing landscape of later life is the terrain of the new book by renowned sociologist Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot. In The Third Chapter: Passion, Risk, and Adventure in the 25 Years After 50, she focuses on the creative and purposeful learning that is possible as we grow older.

Lawrence-Lightfoot spent two years interviewing men and women in their 50s, 60s and 70s to document new ways in which individuals are embracing life before true retirement to try out new careers that often defy traditional norms. Among her subjects are a lawyer who leaves a law firm for divinity school, a mechanical engineer who becomes an artist, a physicist who becomes a middle school teacher and a businesswoman who returns to international relief work.

Marc Freedman of Civic Ventures calls The Third Chapter “the best book yet about the changing life course,” and “an inspiring roadmap for individual and social renewal in the emerging third chapter.”

Lawrence-Lightfoot is a professor at Harvard University. She is the first African-American woman in Harvard’s history to have an endowed professorship named in her honor.

Her upcoming appearances that are open to the public include:

February 17, 8 p.m. – New York City: Center for Adult Life & Learning at the 92nd Street T, 1396 Lexington Ave. In conversation with Dr. Gail Saltz.

February 19, 11 a.m.-noon – Washington, D.C.: Live interview on the Diane Rehm Show (WAMU 88.5 FM).

February 19, 7 p.m. – Washington, D.C.: Politics & Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Talk, Q&A session and book signing.
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March 5, 5-7 p.m. – Boston: Harvard School of Education, Eliot-Lyman Room, Longfellow Hall, 12 Appian Way. Askwith Forum.

March 18, 8 p.m. – Coral Gables, Fla.: Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave.

March 21, 10-11 a.m. – Fort Lauderdale, Fla.: Broward Public Library Foundation. 100 South Andrews Ave. Lit Live!