The American Way of Death Revisited [Paperback]

Jessica Mitford (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 4, 2000

"Mitford's funny and unforgiving book is the best memento mori we are likely to get.  It should be updated and reissued each decade for our spiritual health."--The New York Review of Books

Only the scathing wit and searching intelligence of Jessica Mitford could turn an exposé of the American funeral industry into a book that is at once deadly serious and side-splittingly funny. When first published in 1963 this landmark of investigative journalism became a runaway bestseller and resulted in legislation to protect grieving families from the unscrupulous sales practices of those in "the dismal trade."

Just before her death in 1996, Mitford thoroughly revised and updated her classic study. The American Way of Death Revisited confronts new trends, including the success of the profession's lobbyists in Washington, inflated cremation costs, the telemarketing of pay-in-advance graves, and the effects of monopolies in a death-care industry now dominated by multinational corporations. With its hard-nosed consumer activism and a satiric vision out of Evelyn Waugh's novel The Loved One, The American Way of Death Revisited will not fail to inform, delight, and disturb.

"Brilliant--hilarious--A must-read for anyone planning to throw a funeral in their lifetime."--New York Post

"Witty and penetrating--it speaks the truth."--The Washington Post

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The American Way of Death Revisited is almost unforgivably funny. Jessica Mitford's exposé of the funeral industry, a number one bestseller upon first publication, is a model of muckraking--an almost incredible description of how undertakers in the U.S. assault people's souls and wallets. Before her death in 1996, Mitford devoted most of her energy to this revised edition of her masterwork, which zeroes in on funeral prepayment (the chapter is titled "Pay Now--Die Poorer"), the new multinational funeral corporations ("A Global Village of the Dead"), and the Federal Trade Commission's failure to enforce the laws the first edition of this book helped bring about. The book's greatest treasure is probably her shocking and hilarious description of exactly what happens in the process of embalming. Equally impressive, however, is her chapter called "The Nosy Clergy," which describes the collusion and competition between America's undertakers and its preachers. --Michael Joseph Gross --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

At the time of her death in 1996, Mitford had nearly completed this revision of her 1963 bestseller, a scathing critique of the U.S. funeral industry. Extensively revised, with subsequent additions by her husband, lawyer Robert Treuhaft, Lisa Carlson, an activist in the funeral-reform movement, and research assistant Karen Leonard, Mitford's mordant look at the excesses of the high-pressure salesmanship and lapses of taste of the "death-care industry" still rings true, and the book will evoke readers' ire. Mitford identifies disturbing new trends: cremation, once a low-cost option, has become increasingly expensive as mortuaries pressure the bereaved to buy a "traditional" funeral with all the accoutrements. Monopolistic companies have moved into the field and now account for 20% of the nation's funerals. Furthermore, she charges, the Federal Trade Commission's lax enforcement of its 1984 rule banning morticians' deceptive practices has contributed to an upward spiral of prices and profits. Other developments of the 1990s perceptively analyzed here include the refusal of many funeral directors to embalm AIDS victims and the growing popularity of low-cost funeral and memorial service organizations, which are listed in an appendix.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (January 4, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679771867
• ISBN-13: 978-0679771869
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #233,995 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 75 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Seminal book, strange update June 20, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

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.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Take It From a Funeral/Cemetery Insider.... April 15, 2011

By D. J. Fone

Format:Hardcover

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.

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Reading for All of Us! February 20, 2000

By [e-mail]

Format:Hardcover

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!