Mortal Remains introduces new methods of analyzing death and its crucial meanings over a 240-year period, from 1620 to 1860, untangling its influence on other forms of cultural expression, from religion and politics to race relations and the nature of war. In this volume historians and literary scholars join forces to explore how, in a medically primitive and politically evolving environment, mortality became an issue that was inseparable from national self-definition.

Attempting to make sense of their suffering and loss while imagining a future of cultural permanence and spiritual value, early Americans crafted metaphors of death in particular ways that have shaped the national mythology. As the authors show, the American fascination with murder, dismembered bodies, and scenes of death, the allure of angel sightings, the rural cemetery movement, and the enshrinement of George Washington as a saintly father, constituted a distinct sensibility. Moreover, by exploring the idea of the vanishing Indian and the brutality of slavery, the authors demonstrate how a culture of violence and death had an early effect on the American collective consciousness.

Mortal Remains draws on a range of primary sources-from personal diaries and public addresses, satire and accounts of sensational crime-and makes a needed contribution to neglected aspects of cultural history. It illustrates the profound ways in which experiences with death and the imagery associated with it became enmeshed in American society, politics, and culture.

About the Author
Nancy Isenberg and Andrew Burstein are coholders of the Mary Frances Barnard Chair in Nineteenth-Century American History at the University of Tulsa. Isenberg is the author of Sex and Citizenship in Antebellum America, winner of the 1999 SHEAR book prize. Burstein is the author of several books, including America's Jubilee.

Reviews

"An important book that introduces new methods of analyzing death in early American history. . . . The book illustrates the profound ways that experiences with death and the imagery associated with death influenced not only religion but also other issues-national politics, gender politics, and race relations-that are easy to relate to our contemporary concerns. Isenberg's and Burnstein's work makes a significant contribution to the discussion of death and dying in American history and its value for interdisciplinary study."-Journal of the American Academy of Religion

"These 12 short, highly focused essays analyze how experiences with death and the imagery associated with it influenced US culture before 1860. . . . Recommended."-Choice

"Mortal Remains has set an impressive standard for scholarship on death in early America."-Journal of American History

"Mortal Remains, a collection of twelve essays on death in English-speaking America from the late 1600s to the middle decades of the 1800s, offers a sampling of current cultural historical scholarship and concerns."-Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography

Book Information
ISBN 9780812218237
Author Nancy Isenberg
Format Paperback
Page Count 264
Imprint University of Pennsylvania Press
Publisher University of Pennsylvania Press