Customer Reviews

The American Way of Death Revisited

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As a long-time fan of the original "The American Way of Death," it pains me to rate this edition at only three stars. However, this updated edition is really something of a mess. It's not quite "The American Way of Death, 30th Anniversary Edition" and not quite an update, either.

Most of the text in this version of the book comes verbatim from the 1960-ish original. But scattered throughout are occasional paragraphs and sequences that are new. The main problem is that there is usually no indication of which paragraphs are which: at any given time, "now" could be 1960 or 1996. Since the original book included a lot of chronologically comparative material, you can never tell while reading this book if the paragraph you're on is comparing 1996 with 1960 or 1960 with the first half of the century. You often can't tell whether "$1,000" means $1,000 in 1960 or 1996. It's a basic and pervasive error, and one that prevented me from getting what I wanted out of the book (I was curious to know what had changed since the first edition was published).

Leaving all that aside, however, it's still a must-read, for several reasons: its deft, humorous writing, its information about the funeral industry, and its apparently broad influence on American culture. However, I'd suggest reading the original version. Judging from "Revisited", there's nothing much new under the sun: cremations are up, florists are less dependent on funerals, and funeral directors are just as weasily as ever.

Having lived half my life in the US and half in the UK, I was aware of fundamental differences in practices surrounding death and funeral rituals. Mitford's book provides a useful historical context with a biting criticism of the funeral industry's emotional and financial exploitation of the American public. It's baffling that such a consumer-wise nation could have such a huge blind spot when it comes to the one service which we will ALL use at some time. Depressingly, the mega funeral corporations are making their moves into the British and other world wide funeral markets -- with seemingly little opposition. In any case, I just hope I don't expire during my next visit to the US!

"The American Way of Death Revisited" provides a wealth of information, presented in a tactful and witty manner, to prepare anyone for "battle" with the funeral industry in the event of a loved one's death. It is clear and thorough without being ghoulish or flippant.

Read it now before you need it!

Leave it to Jessica Mitford, who died in 1996, to make the subject of death and the American funeral industry so hilarious. First published to huge acclaim in 1963, The American Way of Death was revised and updated by Mitford, who nearly finished it by the time she died. Her lawyer husband, Robert Treuhaft, completed it with the help of some research assistants. Even a quick and cursory read of this book will make you take out a membership in the Neptune Society as a preemptive strike against high-pressure tactics of funeral home directors to get people (caught as their weakest as they are grieving over someone's death) to spend, spend, spend "to honor the memory of your dearly departed."
Mitford was known as the Original Muckraker for her habit of always speaking the truth, calling a spade a spade, and for probing into the cozy relationship between politicians, morticians, monopolistic ownership policies, the FTC, and federal lobbyists.
Interesting, updated, still drop dead (pun intended) funny, endlessly informative, witty and well-written with refreshing bluntness, The American Way of Death once again deserves to be read by everyone. And there's a terrific and informative appendix at the end.

I was a funeral/cemetery sales professional for several years (my license is still active, should the economy continue so horridly that I must return).

I can attest to the truth of every word Jessica Mitford wrote then, and writes now. If there's one quote I wish she'd have heard direct from the horse's mouth, it's from one sales manager who told me "The most successful people in this business are 100% motivated by money...but are able to make the prospect/client believe money is the LAST thing on their mind."

I've seen shysters using every illegal and immoral trick in the book to persuade people to buy overpriced funeral/cemetery services (thanks to obscenely high commissions), and their employer quietly let them, reaping the tainted revenue, UNTIL someone complains, at which time the company takes the high road and discharges the employee for "violating our high standards".

The largest, oldest funeral/cemetery "combo" in my town employed a convicted financial swindler to sell preneed funeral and cemetery packages. I looked it up on the Web, and saw the County's case against him. At last meeting, he was telling coworkers he had hired a lawyer to get it reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor. I wonder how his victims would feel about that.

At the same place, the Records Room is so impossibly convoluted to find long-ago purchased property and services documents that it just became easier to tell a grieving family member, "I'm sorry about what that salesman told you 50 years ago, but that was never paid for."

The sales manager tried to convince new hires we could easily make $250,000 a year following his methods, which worked beautifully when he was in his 20's (50 years earlier, and long before consumer activits and Jessica Mitford exposed his methods), but would get doors slammed in your face by the one in 50 people now at home during the day.

A cemetery in the same town had a GM who would only permit his own kids, and their longtime best friend, to sell because he knew any "outsider" would call the Department of Consumer Affairs over his practices. One of those practices was selling, for EIGHT YEARS, preneed space in a mausoleum for which they never even broke ground.

When the other shoe finally dropped, and a grieving widower needed that mausoleum space he'd bought many years ago for his wife's entombment, and it wasn't there, the GM refused to refund his money, saying "You own the space." The "space" was AIR. It was only after the widower called KUSI-TV consumer reporter Michael Turko, and got locally shamed, that the cemetery recanted its stance, and refunded the man's money so he could bury his wife in a REAL "space".

And this cemetery, by the way, is not only owned by a religious family in another state, but the sales manager on the premises regularly prays with and for grieving clients just before he fleeces them. PTL at this joint stands not for "Praise The Lord", but "pass the loot".

Yet another cemetery owner in the same town told new hires (apparently, a new one each week, given the staff turnover) she had "reached my goal of being a millionaire by age thirty by being a great salesperson". Her real story, told by her former coworkers, is that she got drunk at a company Christmas party, wrapped her car around around a tree, and got a 7-figure settlement, claiming "the company" got her drunk. That's how she got the money to buy this expensive cemetery in the poorest town in the entire county.

After four years of this kind of salesmanship, I had to either get out of the business or keep passing blood. I'm sorry that I don't see grieving people and the elderly as prey to be milked for 20% commissions on a $6,000 preneed grave space.

Funeral/cemetery consumer activists, I'm available for hire, and can write books and conduct seminars. I've seen everything, believe me.

I never read the original (1963) edition of this ground-breaking expose of the "death care industry" (to use that industry's own euphemism), so I can't compare the "Revisited" (1998) edition to it. But it seems, since Mitford primarily addresses methods and practices, that much of the earlier work has been preserved. As other Amazon reviewers have noted, it can be confusing when trying to distinguish the "then" from the "now." Sometimes you simply have to guess based on the prices being discussed. But sadly, the reader can't help but realize that in most matters regarding the disposal of our dead, what was true then (the lying to customers about the "necessity" and "benefits" of enbalming; price gouging on caskets; secretive pricing and resistance to providing itemized price quotes and invoices; etc.) remains true today.

Mitford's writing is enjoyable in its own right. Her description of what happens during enbalming is downright poetic and her witty put-downs of funeral directors (who are by turns whiney, self-justifying victims and sly exploiters of the emotionally distraught). She also gives ample evidence of being an intrepid and relentless researcher; she seems to take special delight in being able to quote some of the nasty things funeral directors have said publicly about her personally.

While Mitford gives some good advice on how to plan for the disposal of a loved-one (avoid making pre-need funeral arrangements; know that most funeral homes have a "don't walk" policy which means they will come down in price if you try to walk out during the negotiations; enbalming isn't necessary or required by law; consider cremation without burial; contact your local not-for-profit funeral and memorial society), this is not "Funeral Planning for Dummies." It's more of a critique of American culture on the par with other great social activist writers of the 1960s and 70s, Vance Packard, Ralph Nader, and Tom Wolfe. Read, gasp, guffaw, and generally enjoy!

On one level Jessica Mitford has rendered a humorous expose of the dismal trade. On a deeper level she has crafted a non-fiction horror tale for our times, full of corpses, coffins, and cemeteries. Only in this horror tale it's not the dead who are the threat, but the living, breathing, cashiering undertakers. The true fear comes from Mitford's unflinching and honest look at the increasingly rutheless funeral industry. One comes away with a healthy dread of caksets, fermaldahide, and burial vaults.

I found this book to be fascinating.

Critics of the book, especially in those in the death care industry, seem to focus on Mitford's unmasking of various unethical practices. They protest that in more current times there's less (or no) unethical practices.

That may or may not be true. We'll have to wait for another Jessica to take another close look.

Regardless - one of the main points of this book is to examine the traditions associated with the American funeral.

Embalming and displaying a body? Why? It's probably true that good hearted and ethical people practice the 'restorative arts' but for what purpose?

Why the focus on the 'body'? It seems more than a little macabre, creepy, and frankly disrespectful.

One of the critics of this book within Amazon made the erroneous statement that Jessica Mitford's own funeral was "enormus" (sic). This is false.

According to the January 1997 issue of The Economist: "JESSICA MITFORD'S funeral cost just $533.31. The body of the world's best-known campaigner against over-charging and malpractice in the funeral profession was cremated, without a ceremony; the ashes were scattered at sea. The funeral company was the Pacific Interment Service, which prides itself on "dignity, simplicity, affordability"."

It's not surprising that the critic made this falsehood. Critics of Mitford within the death care industry have said all kinds of things about her.

I guess the truth hurts.

R.I.P. Jessica Mitford. Your book was an eye opener for me and a lot of others.

I used to work for a place that handled the needs of the dying and was upset when I realised that they worked for the agnecy (like the hospital) that supported them, not the patient. Say for instance, if a patient wanted fast food in his or her own home but the hospital nurse said no, then he or she went without, never mind that the food brought colour to the patients' cheeks and got them to eat and push food out. That may have only been that place-- I don't know. It takes a lot for the family to stand up to medical care. When I bought this book because a friend was near death and I wanted to support her family and be able to offer advice from the sidelines, I found out that the funeral industry does not support the families but itself. People just get yanked in every direction for their wallets and long term payment plans and "buy now because the price will double in a week's time for this particular burial plot." I laughed through this and I borrowed "Decca's" wit more than a few times in the aftermath of my friends' passing. Who can a grieved family complain to? Everyone thinks it is just them speaking through their anger. Jessica teaches us to be prepared and this is the best way to keep from getting jerked about!


Everyone who will ever need to deal with death needs to read this book. I've rewritten my will to request that I get the cheapest, tackiest casket available (my husband doesn't believe in cremation or I'd prefer that) and that copies of this book be set out as "party favours" for my funeral. If I could have a cause, this would be it!


If my fellow readers are able to, I highly reccomend that they read anything they can get their hands on by the Mitford Girls. These ladies made headlines for themselves durring their time.

The late Jessica Mitford enticed me with the original "American Way of Death" in the 1960's. Her graphic description of the embalming process would later inspire me to follow in her work, as a muckracker and consumer advocate. One thing Jessica did was give me an out, if I didn't want to read about the embalming process she directed me to another page. I thought that was a great move on her part because some people just couldn't handle it.

Yes the book takes some focus and you have to want to learn about the subject matter, it's not like reading Mad Magazine. But even in death Jessica endeared herself to so many of us with her wit and wisdom. She opened my eyes, she helped start a movement and she was the inspiration for a whole new generation of muckrackers.

In every industry there are some bad apples. The funeral industry has a few of their own, but I think the point I want to make is that I am not anti funeral, just anti bad funeral director and anti greed.

I believe that Jessica simply wanted to warn us about those who do take advantage of the bereaved and she wanted to educate those of us who were curious about what goes on behind that formaldehye curtain. I, for one, am grateful for the education.

This is the most interesting and educational book that I have read in ages. I never realized how passive we all are when it comes to funerals. This book has really opened my eyes. I think the section on embalming is very well presented. It was not disturbing or offensive in any way. Everyone should have to read this book before planning a funeral.