With this century, attitudes began to change. We assumed that medicine would eradicate disease, that wars would cease and civil order would prevail. If we could not eradicate death, at least we would extend life.
But the past two decades have seen the tides turn. Death seems to be everywhere. Random killings level the innocent with the implicated. AIDS stalks relentlessly. Even our old enemy tuberculosis is resurgent. Death has come back to life.
This extraordinary book, assembled from the vast photographic archives of Harvard University, offers an unflinching look at death as it has been portrayed and experienced over the past 150 years. We see it on stage, in the laboratory, on the streets, and in the home. We see it as a consequence of old age, violence, accidents, and disease. The images contain elements of humor, pathos, anguish, and artifice. This is a book that will provoke thought (and even outrage) and help us come to terms with this natural event in our lives and perhaps, in making us understand its finality, to appreciate better the gift of life.
