The American Way of Death Revisited
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"Mitford's funny and unforgiving book is the best memento mori we are likely to get. It should be updated and reissued each decade for our spiritual health."—The New York Review of BooksOnly the scathing wit and searching intelligence of Jessica Mitford could turn an exposé of the American funeral industry into a book that is at once deadly serious and side-splittingly funny. When first published in 1963 this landmark of investigative journalism became a runaway bestseller and resulted in legislation to protect grieving families from the unscrupulous sales practices of those in "the dismal trade."Just before her death in 1996, Mitford thoroughly revised and updated her classic study. The American Way of Death Revisited confronts new trends, including the success of the profession's lobbyists in Washington, inflated cremation costs, the telemarketing of pay-in-advance graves, and the effects of monopolies in a death-care industry now dominated by multinational corporations. With its hard-nosed consumer activism and a satiric vision out of Evelyn Waugh's novel The Loved One, The American Way of Death Revisited will not fail to inform, delight, and disturb. "Brilliant—hilarious—A must-read for anyone planning to throw a funeral in their lifetime."—New York Post"Witty and penetrating—it speaks the truth."—The Washington Post A. Alvarez Mitford's funny and unforgiving book is the best memento mori we are likely to get. It should be updated and reissued each decade for our spiritual health. —The New York Review of Books
Editor's NoteForewordIntroduction1Not Selling32The American Way of Death143The Funeral Transaction204The Artifacts345The Story of Service416The Rationale547The Allied Industries708God's Little Million-Dollar Acre819Shroudland Revisited10110Cremation11111What the Public Wants12312Fashions in Funerals13813The Newest Profession15014The Nosy Clergy16315The Federal Trade Commission17616A Global Village of the Dead18817Funerals in England Then and Now20618Press and Protest23719Pay Now - Die Poorer25620New Hope for the Dead270Directory of Not-for-Profit Funeral and Memorial Societies275Index289
