Product Description

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 andafter 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, and other 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 services reflect 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 and family 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 likethe 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--and the real cultural value--of the American funeral.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #848528 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 296 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In 1963, Jessica Mitford's The American Way of Death shocked the nation and provoked scandal throughout the funeral industry. Mitford portrayed undertakers as exploitative businessmen eager to turn a profit off of a poor man's grief. Her book climbed the bestseller list and put the growing and profitable funeral industry on the defensive. Forty years later, Laderman comes to the industry's defense with this thoughtful book. His case is cautious and honest. He presents the industry's history from its inception during the Civil War period up to the present. The author explores American attitudes toward death through various lenses, including cultural, religious and psychological history, which demonstrate a pervasive fascination with death and a desire to share an intimate moment with the dead as a part of the grieving process. Cultural examples of this include the wave of public grief at the sudden death of movie icon Rudolph Valentino and Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer-winning play Our Town. In the last chapter, Laderman discusses current and future challenges facing the industry-such as a desire for cremation and "the rise of death-care giants"-and the industry's successful attempt to deal with them. Laderman, a professor of American religious history and culture at Emory University, provides convincing evidence that the industry is a necessary and compassionate force in American life. While critics like Mitford paint a picture of greed, this account offers a more nuanced image: an industry that provides a "meaningful and material order out of the chaos of death." Illus. not seen by PW.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
In this sequel to his 1996 study of nineteenth-century attitudes toward death (Sacred Remains), Laderman sharply disputes the thesis of Jessica Mitford's influential 1963 expose, The American Way of Death. The funeral directors that Mitford depicted as unscrupulous profiteers are portrayed by Laderman as conscientious professionals. The funeral embalming that Mitford deplored as a costly scam, Laderman represents as crucial to making possible the ceremonial viewing of the deceased that many Americans regard as deeply meaningful. Along the way, he provides fascinating details about how modern morticians have handled deaths in the limelight (JFK) and about how funeral directors have changed their methods in response to muckraking accusations (including Mitford's) and to shifting cultural attitudes toward death. He also traces some especially pronounced changes in the cultural context for the newly restyled death-care industry in the last couple of decades: more demand for cremation rather than burial (reflecting both an influx of Asian immigrants and a decline of traditional orthodoxies), and more privately scripted memorial services. Laderman piquantly illustrates these recent trends by recounting the highly unconventional funeral of--it had to be--Jessica Mitford. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"A thoughtful consideration of an industry that is as misunderstood as it is necessary."--Boston Globe

"Where Mitford relied on muckrake and polemic, driven by opinion and a hunger for social change, Laderman is driven by a free-ranging intellectual curiosity and relies on the professorial tools of research and interview, review and analysis. History and philosophy, radio and TV, the daily papers and current cinema, Hollywood, holy writ, wrestling, Web sites and rock 'n' roll all have something to tell him about the way we look at mortality and matters mortuary. If Mitford's book was a best seller, Laderman's gives us a better record: comprehensive, intelligent and deeply insightful."--Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Mitford's book was invaluable, if for no other reason than putting a touchy topic right there in everybody's front parlor and daring them to ignore it. But Laderman's book is a far more nuanced view of 'the dismal trade.' Whereas Mitford focused on the arithmetic of the funeral business--what is the proper profit margin for ushering someone to their eternal rest?--Laderman ranges all over the place, shedding light on the stages of body decomposition in one chapter and on the cultural significance of George Romero's 'Night of the Living Dead' in another."--Teresa K. Weaver, Atlanta Journal Constitution

"Laderman sharply disputes the thesis of Jessica Mitford's influential 1963 expose, The American Way of Death.... Along the way, he provides fascinating details about how modern morticians have handled deaths in the limelight (JFK) and about how funeral directors have changed their methods in response to muckraking accusations (including Mitford's) and to shifting cultural attitudes toward death.... Laderman piquantly illustrates these recent trends by recounting the highly unconventional funeral of--it had to be--Jessica Mitford."--Booklist

"Laderman's respect, even affection, for the [funeral-industry] profession is clearly evident, but he maintains objectivity throughout. Especially impressive is his treatment of Mitford, whose accusations he challenges politely but thoroughly."--Library Journal

"A largely favorable portrait of a much-maligned industry sure to please most funeral directors, especially those running small-town, family-owned businesses."--Kirkus Reviews

"To a subject accustomed to the cheap shot and sucker-punch, Laderman has brought a robust and welcome scholarship. Part cultural and professional history, part market study, part meditation on mortality, this necessary and eminently readable text examines the borders between the living and the dead in the tradition of Habenstein and Lamers. Required reading for the professional and for the permanently curious."--Thomas Lynch, author of The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade

"In 1963, Jessica Mitford's The American Way of Death shocked the nation and provoked scandal throughout the funeral industry.... Forty years later, Laderman comes to the industry's defense with this thoughtful book. His case is cautious and honest. He presents the industry's history from its inception during the Civil War period up to the present.... [Laderman] provides convincing evidence that the industry is a necessary and compassionate force in American life. While critics like Mitford paint a picture of greed, this accounts offers a more nuanced image: an industry that provides a 'meaningful and material order out of the chaos of death."--Publishers Weekly

"A riveting account of death in twentieth-century America, Rest in Peace buries decades of stereotypes about Americans as death deniers and funeral directors as con men. Instead of skewering the 'Dismal Traders,' Laderman brings them to life, focusing on their postmortem work as an important form of culture charged with spiritual import and mythic significance. The book ranges widely, from the funeral of President Kennedy to the AIDS epidemic, from Disney's Fantasia to the World Wrestling Federation phenom The Undertaker. This is a superb cultural history filled with insights into America's many ways of death."--Stephen R. Prothero, author of Purified by Fire: A History of Cremation in America