The American Way of Death Revisited

Only 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

• Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory
• Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial
• From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death
• Final Rights: Reclaiming the American Way of Death
• The Life of Death: The Bare Bones of Undertaking
• Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
• Celebrations of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual
• Death, Mourning, and Burial: A Cross-Cultural Reader
• How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter
• Confessions of a Funeral Director: How the Business of Death Saved My Life