Rest in Peace A Cultural History of Death and the Funeral Home in Twentieth-Century America

by Laderman, Gary

• ISBN13: 9780195136081
• ISBN10: 019513608X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-03-06
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Though it has often been passionately criticized--as fraudulent, exploitative, even pagan--the American funeral home has become nearly as inevitable as death itself, an institution firmly embedded in our culture. But how did the funeral home come to hold such a position? What is its history?And is it guilty of the charges sometimes leveled against it? In Rest in Peace, Gary Laderman traces the origins of American funeral rituals, from the evolution of embalming techniques during and after the Civil War and the shift from home funerals to funeral homes at the turn of the century, to the increasing subordination of priests, ministers, andother religious figures to the funeral director throughout the twentieth century. In doing so he shows that far from manipulating vulnerable mourners, as Jessica Mitford claimed in her best-selling The American Way of Death (1963), funeral directors are highly respected figures whose servicesreflect the community's deepest needs and wishes. Indeed, Laderman shows that funeral directors generally give the people what they want when it is time to bury our dead. He reveals, for example, that the open casket, often criticized as barbaric, provides a deeply meaningful moment for friends andfamily who must say goodbye to their loved one. But he also shows how the dead often come back to life in the popular imagination to disturb the peace of the living. Drawing upon interviews with funeral directors, major historical events like the funerals of John F. Kennedy and Rudolf Valentino, films, television, newspaper reports, proposals for funeral reform, and other primary sources, Rest in Peace cuts through the rhetoric to show us the reality--andthe real cultural value--of the American funeral.

Author Biography

Gary Laderman is Associate Professor of American Religious History and Culture at Emory University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Prologue
Introduction: 1963
From House Calls to Funeral Homes: Changing Relations Between the Living and the Dead	p. 1
Explaining the American Funeral, 1918-1963	p. 45
Good Grief! Jessica Mitford Makes the New York Times Bestseller List	p. 83
Keeping the Dead in Place: Old and New Patterns of Consumption	p. 119
Final Frontiers: Into the Twenty-First Century	p. 170
Epilogue: 9/11	p. 212
Notes	p. 217
Index	p. 237
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