Death in War and Peace is the first detailed historical study of the experience of death, grief, and mourning in England in the fifty years after 1914. In it Professor Jalland explores the complex shift from a culture where death was accepted and grief was openly expressed before 1914, to one of avoidance and silence by the 1940s and thereafter. The two world wars had a profound and cumulative impact on the prolonged process of change in attitudes to death in England. The inter-war generation grew up in a bleak atmosphere of mass mourning for the dead soldiers of the Great War, and the Second World War created an even deeper break with the past as a pervasive model of silence about death and suppressed grieving became entrenched in the nation's psyche. Stories drawn from letters and diaries show us how death and loss were experienced by individuals and families in England from 1914; and how the attitudes, responses, and rituals of death and grieving varied with gender, religion, class, and region. The growing medicalization and hospitalization of death from the 1950s further reinforced the growing culture of silence about death, as it moved from the care of the family to that of hospitals, doctors, and undertakers. These silences about death still linger today, despite a further cultural shift since the 1970s towards greater emotional expressiveness. This fascinating study of death and bereavement helps us to understand the present as well as the past.

About the Author
Pat Jalland has been a Professor of History at the Australian National University since 1997. She has published in British women's history, Anglo-Irish history, and the history of death and bereavement in Australia and Britain. Her eight books include The Liberals and Ireland (1980); Women, Marriage, and Politics (1986), winner of the 1987 Western Australian Literary Award for non-fiction; Death in the Victorian Family (1996), winner of the New South Wales Premier's Prize for History, and Changing Ways of Death in 20th Century Australia (2006).

Reviews
Review from previous edition An important historical contribution to the study of death and an informative account of how a country has handled far-reaching social challenge and change... Death in War and Peace succeeds in negotiating the gulf between scholarly and non-scholarly terrains, and for this Jalland must be commended. * Kate Woodthorpe, Times Higher Education *
Scholarly enterprise and historical flair have enabled Professor Jalland to rise above the limitations of the material... Death in War and Peace provides us with fresh, imaginative perspectives and compelling detail. * Paul Addison, Times Literary Supplement *
impressive and highly readable work * Glennys Howarth, Social History of Medicine *
Jalland writes with the authority of a scholar who has spent many years researching her subject. This is a fine survey of a neglected topic, and it will surely remain as the standard work in the field for many years. * Adrian Bingham, English Historical Review *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199651887
Author Pat Jalland
Format Paperback
Page Count 336
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 516g
Dimensions(mm) 232mm * 155mm * 19mm