The Sacred Remains traces American attitudes toward the dead from the death of George Washington in 1799 and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865 to the emergence of organized mortuary enterprises at the close of the 19th century. Gary Laderman focuses on the place and treatment of the dead human body and the customs and rituals of funerals as guides to the cultural, spiritual, and religious landscape. This is a well-reasoned and researched text that is an important study of grave matters, mortuary arts, and the meaning of death.
