The American Way of Death Revisited by Jessica Mitford

It may be helpful to note before I even get into this review - or this project for that matter - that I am currently studying and starting to pursue a career in the area of death care, specifically alternative death care guidance. Many of the books that I will be reviewing will be in this area of study. I thought I would behoove me to start with the updated version of "the book" that had the North American funeral industry quivering in their shiny black shoes when it was first published in 1963: The American Way of Death Revisited.

Jessica Mitford, a self-proclaimed muckraker set about to uncover some of the dirty secrets behind the polished veneer of the modern funeral industry in the middle of the last century. Mitford's expose made huge waves throughout the world when it came out and was an enormous best-seller. The version that I read, which she completed just shortly before her own death in 1996, was interesting because she was able to compare and contrast industry changes over the 30 intervening years between versions.

The New York Post said that this book is a "must-read for anyone planning to throw a funeral in their lifetime" and I believe that is still the case - even 15 years after the revisions. Since I am just embarking on my journey into the realm of death care I have been talking to a lot of folks and doing a lot of reading about funerals. This is the book that websites, other books, and random people that I talk to reference as the book that changed everything. I was surprised to learn that my mom and dad both read the original in high school in their Sociology classes. I think it's pretty telling that research done in 1961 could still be relevant today, owing to Mitford's style and the thoroughness of the study.

Mitford, with the aid of at least one full time research assistant, uncovered practices, pricing, and truly abhorrent behavior in the related post-death fields of Funeral Directors and homes, cemeteries, crematoriums, funeral related merchandise and funeral insurance. Peppered amongst the figures and facts are personal stories of folks and their experiences at the hands of corporate or private funeral directors. Speaking of "corporate", that is one of Mitford's overriding themes - the corporatization of the industry is when things went horribly awry. When the 1996 version came out two large companies, Loewen Group and SCI owned 30% of all funeral homes in the country and I wouldn't be surprised if it was more now. Our food, our water, our schools are all commodified, why should our death care be any different?

Since I'm just getting started down this road of study I can not, with any confidence, state whether or not this is the best or only book to read on the subject. However, I am confidant that if you do choose to read it you will enjoy Mitford's style and will benefit from an exercise in examining an industry that grew too fat, too fast. Perhaps you may even be like many thousands of folks so moved that they set about writing their elected officials demanding reform, or joining together and forming cooperative memorial societies.