Mortal Remains: Death in Early America

Mortal Remains introduces new methods of analyzing death and its crucial meanings over a 240—year period, from 1620 to 1860, untangling its influence on other forms of cultural expression, from religion and politics to race relations and the nature of war. In this volume historians and literary scholars join forces to explore how, in a medically primitive and politically evolving environment, mortality became an issue that was inseparable from national self—definition.

Attempting to make sen...