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Rest in peace : a cultural history of death and the funeral home in twentieth-century America /
Gary Laderman traces the origins of American funeral rituals, & looks at the increasing subordination of religious figures to the funeral director in the late 20th century, demonstrating that the modern director is very far from Mitford's manipulator of 'The American Way of Death'...
| Clasificación: | Libro Electrónico |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Electrónico eBook |
| Idioma: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
New York :
Oxford University Press,
2003.
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| Colección: | OUP E-Books.
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| Temas: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Texto completo |
| Sumario: | Gary Laderman traces the origins of American funeral rituals, & looks at the increasing subordination of religious figures to the funeral director in the late 20th century, demonstrating that the modern director is very far from Mitford's manipulator of 'The American Way of Death'. "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."--Jacket of print edition |
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| Descripción Física: | 1 online resource (xlii, 245 pages) : illustrations |
| Bibliografía: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 217-236) and index. |
| ISBN: | 1423761170 9781423761174 9780195343977 0195343972 019513608X 9780195136081 019518355X 9780195183559 9786610473489 661047348X 1280473487 9781280473487 9780199850198 0199850194 |