Table of Contents
The Dark Arts: An Introduction 1
Chapter 1 A Seismic Shift: Lincoln and the New Sanitary Science 5
Chapter 2 The Book of the Dead 25
Chapter 3 Lethal Combat and Other Roman Obsequies 37
Chapter 4 The Bloody Barber-Surgeons: Embalming Emerges from the Dark Ages 51
Chapter 5 Mourning Gloves and Liquor: Early American Burial Practices 65
Chapter 6 Embalming Surgeons 85
Chapter 7 Gone to Their Sleep: Victorian Sensibilities 107
Chapter 8 Resurrectionists: Advent of the Burial Vault 127
Chapter 9 Vessels of the Dead: Coffins, Caskets, and the Hysteria Surrounding Grave Alarms 147
Chapter 10 The Temple of Honor: Vehicles of the Dead 169
Chapter 11 Mourning the Great War 183
Chapter 12 Flame Burial 203
Chapter 13 Mushroom Suits and the Future (of Funeral Service) 223
Acknowledgments 237
Notes 239
Index 273
About the Author 277