Facing the 'King of Terrors': Death and Society in an American Community, 1750–1990
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 12/13/1999
EAN 9780521633192, ISBN10: 0521633192
Hardcover, 316 pages, 23.4 x 15.6 x 1.9 cm
Language: English
In this book, death, a topic often neglected by historians, is given the attention it deserves as one of the most important aspects of personal and societal experience. Facing the 'King of Terrors' examines changes in the roles and perceptions of death in one American community, Schenectady, New York, from 1750 to 1990. A remarkably thorough study, this work incorporates a wide variety of topics, including causes of death, epidemics and the reactions they engender, rituals surrounding dying and burial, cemeteries and grave markers, public celebrations of the deaths of important figures, reactions to war, and businesses that profit from death. Combining an in-depth look at patterns of death in society as a whole with an investigation of personal responses to such cultural customs, the book makes use of personal letters and diaries to explore how broader social changes were manifested in the lives of individuals.
1. Meeting the 'King of Terrors'
2. Death in the colonial village
3. Thy death
1800–50
4. To speak of death
culture and the individual
5. The era of the Civil War 1850–70
6. 'But the weaver knows the threads'
perspectives on the Civil War
7. Great transitions
1870–1950
8. To speak of death
searching for a new vocabulary
9. A vicarious intimacy with death
1950 to the present
Appendix
Index.