American Afterlife

Author : Kate Sweeney
Publisher : University of Georgia Press
ISBN 13 : 0820346896
Total Pages : 232 pages
Book Rating : 4.92/5 ( download)

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Download or read book American Afterlife written by Kate Sweeney and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2014-03-15 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award-winning writer explores the patchwork American cultural history of grieving the departed. One family inters their matriarch’s ashes on the floor of the ocean. Another holds a memorial weenie roast each year at a green-burial cemetery. An 1898 ad for embalming fluid promises, “You can make mummies with it!” while a leading contemporary burial vault is touted as impervious to the elements. A grieving mother, 150 years ago, might spend her days tending a garden at her daughter’s grave. Today, she might tend the roadside memorial she erected where her daughter was killed. One mother wears a locket containing her daughter’s hair; the other, a necklace containing her ashes. What happens after someone dies depends on our personal stories and on where those stories fall in a larger tale―that of death in America. It’s a powerful tale that we usually keep hidden from our everyday lives until we have to face it. American Afterlife by Kate Sweeney reveals this world through a collective portrait of Americans past and present who are personally involved with death: obit writers in the desert, an Atlantic funeral voyage, a fourth-generation funeral director―even a midwestern museum that shows us our death-obsessed Victorian progenitors. Each story illuminates details in another, revealing a landscape that feels at once strange and familiar, one that’s by turns odd, tragic, poignant, and sometimes even funny. “Sweeney’s quest for the “why” behind mourning rituals has given us a book in the best tradition of narrative journalism.”—Jessica Handler, author of Braving the Fire: A Guide to Writing about Grief and Loss

Author : Shannon Lee Dawdy
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691228450
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.57/5 ( download)

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Download or read book American Afterlives written by Shannon Lee Dawdy and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A mesmerizing trip across America to investigate the changing face of death in contemporary life Death in the United States is undergoing a quiet revolution. You can have your body frozen, dissected, composted, dissolved, or tanned. Your family can incorporate your remains into jewelry, shotgun shells, paperweights, and artwork. Cremations have more than doubled, and DIY home funerals and green burials are on the rise. American Afterlives is Shannon Lee Dawdy’s lyrical and compassionate account of changing death practices in America as people face their own mortality and search for a different kind of afterlife. As an anthropologist and archaeologist, Dawdy knows that how a society treats its dead yields powerful clues about its beliefs and values. As someone who has experienced loss herself, she knows there is no way to tell this story without also reexamining her own views about death and dying. In this meditative and gently humorous book, Dawdy embarks on a transformative journey across the United States, talking to funeral directors, death-care entrepreneurs, designers, cemetery owners, death doulas, and ordinary people from all walks of life. What she discovers is that, by reinventing death, Americans are reworking their ideas about personhood, ritual, and connection across generations. She also confronts the seeming contradiction that American death is becoming at the same time more materialistic and more spiritual. Written in conjunction with a documentary film project, American Afterlives features images by cinematographer Daniel Zox that provide their own testament to our rapidly changing attitudes toward death and the afterlife.

Author : Emma Anderson
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674727177
Total Pages : 411 pages
Book Rating : 4.75/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Death and Afterlife of the North American Martyrs written by Emma Anderson and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2013-11-18 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1640s--a decade of epidemic and warfare across colonial North America--eight Jesuit missionaries met their deaths at the hands of native antagonists. With their collective canonization in 1930, these men, known to the devout as the North American martyrs, would become the continent's first official Catholic saints. In The Death and Afterlife of the North American Martyrs, Emma Anderson untangles the complexities of these seminal acts of violence and their ever-changing legacy across the centuries. While exploring how Jesuit missionaries perceived their terrifying final hours, the work also seeks to comprehend the motivations of the those who confronted them from the other side of the axe, musket, or caldron of boiling water, and to illuminate the experiences of those native Catholics who, though they died alongside their missionary mentors, have yet to receive comparable recognition as martyrs by the Catholic Church. In tracing the creation and evolution of the cult of the martyrs across the centuries, Anderson reveals the ways in which both believers and detractors have honored and preserved the memory of the martyrs in this "afterlife," and how their powerful story has been continually reinterpreted in the collective imagination over the centuries. As rival shrines rose to honor the martyrs on either side of the U.S.-Canadian border, these figures would both unite and deeply divide natives and non-natives, francophones and anglophones, Protestants and Catholics, Canadians and Americans, forging a legacy as controversial as it has been enduring.

Author : Drew Gilpin Faust
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0375703837
Total Pages : 385 pages
Book Rating : 4.36/5 ( download)

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Download or read book This Republic of Suffering written by Drew Gilpin Faust and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2009-01-06 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • An "extraordinary ... profoundly moving" history (The New York Times Book Review) of the American Civil War that reveals the ways that death on such a scale changed not only individual lives but the life of the nation. An estiated 750,000 soldiers lost their lives in the American Civil War. An equivalent proportion of today's population would be seven and a half million. In This Republic of Suffering, Drew Gilpin Faust describes how the survivors managed on a practical level and how a deeply religious culture struggled to reconcile the unprecedented carnage with its belief in a benevolent God. Throughout, the voices of soldiers and their families, of statesmen, generals, preachers, poets, surgeons, nurses, northerners and southerners come together to give us a vivid understanding of the Civil War's most fundamental and widely shared reality. With a new introduction by the author, and a new foreword by Mike Mullen, 17th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Author : Robert T. Conn
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030262189
Total Pages : 527 pages
Book Rating : 4.81/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Bolívar’s Afterlife in the Americas written by Robert T. Conn and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-04-01 with total page 527 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Simón Bolívar is the preeminent symbol of Latin America and the subject of seemingly endless posthumous attention. Interpreted and reinterpreted in biographies, histories, political writings, speeches, and works of art and fiction, he has been a vehicle for public discourse for the past two centuries. Robert T. Conn follows the afterlives of Bolívar across the Americas, tracing his presence in a range of competing but interlocking national stories. How have historians, writers, statesmen, filmmakers, and institutions reworked his life and writings to make cultural and political claims? How has his legacy been interpreted in the countries whose territories he liberated, as well as in those where his importance is symbolic, such as the United States? In answering these questions, Conn illuminates the history of nation building and hemispheric globalism in the Americas.

Author : Pedro Hoffmeister
Publisher : Crooked Lane Books
ISBN 13 : 1639101357
Total Pages : 238 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

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Download or read book American Afterlife written by Pedro Hoffmeister and published by Crooked Lane Books. This book was released on 2022-12-06 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The earthquake was just the beginning. Now, the true horror arrives in this unflinching, near-future thriller about family and survival, for fans of Chuck Wendig. The Pacific Northwest lies in ruins in the aftermath of the 9.2 Cascadia earthquake. There is a tsunami at the coast, annihilated infrastructure in all the towns and cities, and failed dams in the Oregon river valley where 15-year-old Cielo lives with her mother, a fearful evangelical who’s become caught up in a fearsome cult called The Collection of Redeemed Souls. Cielo and her mother, Mexican citizens without U.S. papers, have always had their status teeter on the edge—and now it’s about to plunge into the abyss. When the earthquake hits, Cielo’s mother hasn’t been home in days, but Cielo suspects that she’s holed up with the cult and might even be dead. When the National Guard arrives to evacuate survivors, she stays behind in the flooded city to find her body. Members of The Collection of Redeemed Souls have also chosen to stay, and their disciples are capturing anyone still left behind and converting them to the cult by force. Entering a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, Cielo tries to evade the cult at every turn as she desperately searches for her mother’s remains. With gunfights and mass killings engulfing the city, Cielo is one step away from her own demise, but the bonds of blood drive her on toward a confrontation with pure evil—and a final chance for her mother’s redemption.

Author : Mark Binelli
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 1250039231
Total Pages : 349 pages
Book Rating : 4.31/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Detroit City Is the Place to Be written by Mark Binelli and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The fall and maybe rise of Detroit, America's most epic urban failure, from local native and Rolling Stone reporter Mark BinelliOnce America's capitalist dream town, Detroit is our country's greatest urban failure, having fallen the longest and the farthest. But the city's worst crisis yet (and that's saying something) has managed to do the unthinkable: turn the end of days into a laboratory for the future. Urban planners, land speculators, neo-pastoral agriculturalists, and utopian environmentalists--all have been drawn to Detroit's baroquely decaying, nothing-left-to-lose frontier. With an eye for both the darkly absurd and the radically new, Detroit-area native and Rolling Stone writer Mark Binelli has chronicled this convergence. Throughout the city's "museum of neglect"--its swaths of abandoned buildings, its miles of urban prairie--he tracks the signs of blight repurposed, from the school for pregnant teenagers to the killer ex-con turned street patroller, from the organic farming on empty lots to GM's wager on the Volt electric car and the mayor's realignment plan (the most ambitious on record) to move residents of half-empty neighborhoods into a viable, new urban center.Sharp and impassioned, Detroit City Is the Place to Be is alive with the sense of possibility that comes when a city hits rock bottom. Beyond the usual portrait of crime, poverty, and ruin, we glimpse a future Detroit that is smaller, less segregated, greener, economically diverse, and better functioning--what might just be the first post-industrial city of our new century"--

Author : Eugene Braxton
Publisher : Archway Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1480812803
Total Pages : 141 pages
Book Rating : 4.02/5 ( download)

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Download or read book America's Mystic Solves Near-Death Riddle written by Eugene Braxton and published by Archway Publishing. This book was released on 2014-12-15 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Dear Mr. Braxton, I appreciate your perspective on your near death experience, grounded as it is in years of prior experience, with out of body visits to other realms, and your interest in helping us with our research...I thank you in advance, for your help with this important research, and look forward with pleasure to meeting you." - Dr. Bruce Greyson, Dean of Near Death Research, Director of International Association of Near Death Studies, Editor in Chief of the Journal of Near Death Studies "Eugene, it's about time you came out with what you know...and good luck with your book it will be important." - Dr. P.M.H. Atwater, Female and 3 time Near Death Experience/Bestselling author and Current #1 Near Death World Authority "I have also heard of this American Mystic, and I have heard that at the age of 15, he was...The World's Foremost Authority on Levels of Consciousness and Experimental Dream Control" - Dr. Charles Tart - #1 World Authority in Out of Body Experiences and Levels of Consciousness "Keep up the good work, Eugene"- - Dr. David M Jacobs, of Temple University, The #1 World Authority in UFO Research and Alien Abductions Albert Einstein said that all knowledge comes from experience, and he was right. Without learning from experiences, scientists can't gather the data they need. When it comes to near-death experiences, however, we're often left without the necessary information. Those who remember anything usually just recall a flash of light or a faint sound or voice. But Eugene Braxton could remember almost everything after he nearly drowned in a lake at age fifteen, which followed years of lucid dreams, visions, and other strange encounters. He's been honing his skills as a mystic ever since, and he explores amazing experiences that he and others have had - everything from UFO sightings, probable abductions, different levels of consciousness, and more. Discover insights on the length of time between death and re-consciousness, what happens at the moment of death, why levitation is normal in the afterlife, and the changes your mind and spirit will undergo as you approach and pass through death. Get the forbidden knowledge and hard-to-find research you've been craving about near-death experiences, the afterlife, and the union of mysticism and science in America's Mystic Solves Near-Death Riddle.

Author : Bernie Cook
Publisher : University of Texas Press
ISBN 13 : 0292782500
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.01/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Thelma & Louise Live! written by Bernie Cook and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When they floored their Thunderbird off a cliff rather than surrender to the law, Thelma and Louise became icons of female rebellion, provoking strong reactions from viewers who felt either empowered or outraged by the duo's transgressions of women's traditional roles. The 1991 film quickly became—and continues to be—a potent cultural reference point, even inspiring a bumper sticker that declares, "Thelma & Louise Live!" In this insightful study of Thelma & Louise, six noted film scholars investigate the initial reception and ongoing impact of this landmark film. The writers consider Thelma & Louise from a variety of perspectives, turning attention to the film's promotion and audience response over time; to theories of comedy and the role of laughter in the film; to the film's soundtrack and score; to the performances of stars Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis; to the emergence of Brad Pitt as a star and male sex object; and to the film's place in the history of road and crime film genres. Complementing the scholarly analysis is an in-depth interview of screenwriter Callie Khouri by editor Bernie Cook, as well as reviews of Thelma & Louise that appeared in U.S. News & World Report and Time. Offering myriad new ways of understanding the complex interrelations of gender, identity, and violence, Thelma & Louise Live! attests to the ongoing life and still-evolving meanings of this now-classic film.

Author : John Perry Barlow
Publisher : Crown
ISBN 13 : 1524760196
Total Pages : 298 pages
Book Rating : 4.99/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Mother American Night written by John Perry Barlow and published by Crown. This book was released on 2019-06-04 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Perry Barlow’s wild ride with the Grateful Dead was just part of a Zelig-like life that took him from a childhood as ranching royalty in Wyoming to membership in the Internet Hall of Fame as a digital free speech advocate. Mother American Night is the wild, funny, heartbreaking, and often unbelievable (yet completely true) story of an American icon. Born into a powerful Wyoming political family, John Perry Barlow wrote the lyrics for thirty Grateful Dead songs while also running his family’s cattle ranch. He hung out in Andy Warhol’s Factory, went on a date with the Dalai Lama’s sister, and accidentally shot Bob Weir in the face on the eve of his own wedding. As a favor to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Barlow mentored a young JFK Jr. and the two then became lifelong friends. Despite being a freely self-confessed acidhead, he served as Dick Cheney’s campaign manager during Cheney’s first run for Congress. And after befriending a legendary early group of computer hackers known as the Legion of Doom, Barlow became a renowned internet guru who then cofounded the groundbreaking Electronic Frontier Foundation. His résumé only hints of the richness of a life lived on the edge. Blessed with an incredible sense of humor and a unique voice, Barlow was a born storyteller in the tradition of Mark Twain and Will Rogers. Through intimate portraits of friends and acquaintances from Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia to Timothy Leary and Steve Jobs, Mother American Night traces the generational passage by which the counterculture became the culture, and it shows why learning to accept love may be the hardest thing we ever ask of ourselves.