The American Way of Death Revisited

Required reading for a course in Death and Dying that I had to take. Great expose of the funeral home industry and how they prey upon grieving families emotions to sell their wares. Excellent book which will hold your interest with facts and humor.

Required reading for a course in Death and Dying that I had to take. Great expose of the funeral home industry and how they prey upon grieving families emotions to sell their wares. Excellent book which will hold your interest with facts and humor.

I was thrilled when I found that Jessica Mitford's seminal work The American Way of Death was available once more. It is wonderful, even if a little alarming, to find that it is just as relevant in 2007 as it was when first published in 1963.

Ms Mitford, or Decca to her friends, is inspirational. She combines wit, intelligence and thorough investigation with humour to make this book informative and a joy to read. One cannot help wondering however how we as consumers have been seduced by the promise of 'eternal slumber' for so long.

It is my hope that other works such as The Trial of Dr Spock, Kind and Usual Punishment: The Prison Business and Hons and Rebels will also be revisted.

The American Way of Death should be compulsory reading for all because we will all face the death of a loved one and will have to make decisions in a vulnerable state and because her actuity will ensure you never look at anything the same way again.

This is the most interesting and educational book that I have read in ages. I never realized how passive we all are when it comes to funerals. This book has really opened my eyes. I think the section on embalming is very well presented. It was not disturbing or offensive in any way. Everyone should have to read this book before planning a funeral.

Ms. Mitford does a wonderful job of presenting details about the funeral industry. Published in 1963, this book is even more relevant today than ever. It causes one to look at the American view of death. Our society is one of fear and consumption, and there is nothing we fear more than death. This is a great read for anyone considering a job in the helping professions. We highly recommend it.

Jessica Mitford opened my eyes many years ago with her original American Way of Death. I saw her as a mentor. Over the years I have become outspoken about the corrupt and illicit practices in the funeral industry. In fact, I have developed my own reputation for being "Jessica Junior". A couple of years ago I visited my local, corporated owned, funeral home, the biggest in my city and requested pre-need. Cremation there cost a paltry $6000 (they said they have high overhead). When it came time for casket selection I asked to "try out" one of the more expensive caskets. It was awful. I asked them "since you expect me to pay $15,000 for the deluxe, don't leak model can't I have Sealy Posturepedic for the matress". Jessica would have been proud.
Thank you Jessica for the lessons you taught me and for also letting us know the truth about what goes on behind closed doors.

On one level Jessica Mitford has rendered a humorous expose of the dismal trade. On a deeper level she has crafted a non-fiction horror tale for our times, full of corpses, coffins, and cemeteries. Only in this horror tale it's not the dead who are the threat, but the living, breathing, cashiering undertakers. The true fear comes from Mitford's unflinching and honest look at the increasingly rutheless funeral industry. One comes away with a healthy dread of caksets, fermaldahide, and burial vaults.

While I love Jessica Mitford's writing style, I must admit that now that I am older I can say I see the value of a nice funeral. They are for the living and I think even the lowliest life deserves memorial. However, this book does point out things to be wary about and shows the options (many available due to Ms. Mitford's first book).

I have just finished reading both the 1963 and 1998 versions of this book, and am greatly disappointed. While her expose was much needed in the sixties to bring reform and regulations to the funeral industry, much has changed about pricing, legalities, and fairness of trade. It saddens me to see that not much about her book has.

She does add a new chapter on the conglomerates currently taking over the industry, as well as a chapter on the rise of pre-planning. She has updated some of her price quotes. However, most of the examples that she uses from personal experience (read: undercover investigation) or funeral publications are pre-1963. This hardly seems a fair view of an industry that has changed drastically since then. I suppose she was counting on most people not reading both editions so close together, and not catching her journalistic laziness.

The directors I worked for several years ago are some of the kindest and honest men I have ever met. This is not a profession to go into because you want to make money--you couldn't pay most people enough to touch a dead body, never mind embalm it or clean it to get it ready for cremation. She paints a skewed picture of the men and women who choose to serve their community members in their time of deepest grief, and although there are greedy directors out there (just as there are greedy mechanics or lawyers or politicians), most funeral directors truly desire to help others through their work.

I would read Gary Laderman's Rest in Peace, or Thomas Lynch's The Undertaking, to get a more balanced perspective.

while mitford claimed that funeral directors prey on and profit from the grief of survivors, she, like most so-called muckrakers, preyed on and profited from the fears of ignorant consumers who would believe anything in print. she was an anti-business communist and proud of it. i have no issue with that. i have issue, however, with the fact that she employed her own political and economic beliefs in the service of scandalizing and vilifying an entire industry, which by and large is populated with good, hard-working individuals who provide a service that very few would be willing to provide. her anti-business rhetoric works only because death itself is a sensitive subject. so, naturally, to make a living providing a funeral service is considered taking advantage of greiving people. interesting. do your local grocers -- or your local supermarkets that are owned by large multinational corporations -- take advantage of you when they make livings off of your need to eat? aren't they exploiting the needs of those who would otherwise starve? see this for what it is: communist, anti-business rhetoric built into a muckraking style of jourmalism that can only be seen as the predecessor of our ridiculous nightly news and their scare tactics: "next on your local news . . . ten things in your kitchen that can kill you!" read it with the same skepticism with which it was supposedly written.

This book is a horrible and false indictment of the funeral industry, and slap in the face to the thousands of honest caring funeral directors everywhere who work in dirty, dangerous conditions for low pay and benefits to provide a service that no one else wants to do.