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, 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 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--and the real cultural value--of the American funeral.

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

Laderman, Gary

Parenting & Relationships

Oxford University Press

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, 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 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--and the real cultural value--of the American funeral.

The Sacred Remains: American Attitudes Toward Death, 1799-1883

Yale University Press

When George Washington died in 1799, towns throughout the country commemorated the event with solemn processions featuring empty coffins. In contrast, after Abraham Lincoln's death in 1865, his body was transported around the North and displayed for more than two weeks, for by then corpses could be autopsied, drained of their blood, and beautified for the benefit of mourners. This absorbing book explores the changing attitudes toward death and the dead in northern Protestant communities during the nineteenth century. Gary Laderman offers insights into the construction of an "American way of death," illuminating the central role of the Civil War and tracing the birth of the funeral industry in the decades following the war. Drawing on medical histories, religious documents, personal diaries and letters, literature, painting, and photography, Laderman examines the cultural transformations that led to nationally organized death specialists, the practice of embalming, and the commodification of the corpse. These cultural changes included the development of liberal theology, which provided more spiritual views of heaven and the afterlife; the concern for health, which turned those who managed death toward more scientific treatment of bodies; and growing sentimentalism, which produced an increased desire to gaze upon the corpse or to take and keep death photographs. In particular Laderman focuses on the transforming effect of the Civil War, which presented so many Americans with dead relatives who needed to be recovered, viewed, and given a "proper burial."

This unique encyclopedia explores the historical and contemporary controversies between science and religion. It is designed to offer multicultural and multi-religious views, and provide wide-ranging perspectives. "Science, Religion, and Society" covers all aspects of the religion and science dichotomy, from humanities to social sciences to natural sciences, and includes articles by theologians, religion scholars, physicians, scientists, historians, and psychologists, among others. The first section, General Overviews, contains essays that provide a road map for exploring the major challenges and questions in science and religion. Following this, the Historical Perspectives section grounds these major questions in the past, and demonstrates how they have developed into the six broad areas of contemporary research and discussion that follow. These sections - Creation, the Cosmos, and Origins of the Universe; Ecology, Evolution, and the Natural World; Consciousness, Mind, and the Brain; Healers and Healing; Dying and Death; and Genetics and Religion - organize the questions and research that are the foundation of the enormous interest, and controversy, in science and religion today.

Science, Religion, And Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, And Controversy (2 vol. set)

Business & Money

Eisen, Arri

Economics

Routledge

Sacred Matters makes the powerful case that we must take the broad view of religious life in America today. Laderman argues that genuinely religious practices and experiences can be found in the unlikeliest of placesin science laboratories, in movie theaters and concert halls, at the Super Bowl, in Americans’ obsession with prescription drugs and in their pursuit of pornography. Laderman depicts an American cultural landscape blooming with sacred icons, popular devotions, and deep-rooted mythologies.Sacred Matters makes a powerful and illuminating case that religion is everywhereand that we have barely begun to reckon with its hold on our cultural life.

Sacred Matters: Celebrity Worship, Sexual Ecstasies, The Living Dead and Other Signs of Religious Life in the United States

History

World

New Press, The

Sacred Matters makes the powerful case that we must take the broad view of religious life in America today. Laderman argues that genuinely religious practices and experiences can be found in the unlikeliest of placesin science laboratories, in movie theaters and concert halls, at the Super Bowl, in Americans’ obsession with prescription drugs and in their pursuit of pornography. Laderman depicts an American cultural landscape blooming with sacred icons, popular devotions, and deep-rooted mythologies. Sacred Matters makes a powerful and illuminating case that religion is everywhereand that we have barely begun to reckon with its hold on our cultural life.

Sacred Matters: Celebrity Worship, Sexual Ecstasies, the Living Dead, and Other Signs of Religious Life in the United States

The New Press

Don't Think About Death: A Memoir on Mortality presents an unconventional take on how we live with death-or try to at least. It is spurred, in part, by a recurring question students and readers ask author Gary Laderman all the time: "Why do you study death?" This book attempts to explain and recalls how he became drawn to, and stuck with, the topic. Part one consists of stories about death in Laderman's life, and how he veered from a simple interest into an academic career focusing on the cultural and historical analysis of death. Part two contains some of his published writings on death, both in academic, formal scholarly terms with peer-reviewed, but fun, journal articles, and as a public scholar with fun, but also serious, popular internet posts.

Don't Think About Death: A Memoir on Mortality

Politics & Social Sciences

Sociology

Deeds Publishing

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Laderman, Gary. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Laderman, Gary

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Laderman, Gary. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

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

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

The Sacred Remains: American Attitudes Toward Death, 1799-1883

The Sacred Remains: American Attitudes Toward Death, 1799-1883

Science, Religion, And Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, And Controversy (2 vol. set)

Sacred Matters: Celebrity Worship, Sexual Ecstasies, The Living Dead and Other Signs of Religious Life in the United States

Sacred Matters: Celebrity Worship, Sexual Ecstasies, the Living Dead, and Other Signs of Religious Life in the United States

Don't Think About Death: A Memoir on Mortality