TY - BOOK ID - 77898189 TI - Purified by fire PY - 2001 SN - 0520929748 1282357042 1597348414 9786612357046 9780520929746 0585391173 9780585391175 9781597348416 9780520208162 0520208161 0520208161 9781282357044 0520236882 9780520236882 PB - Berkeley University of California Press DB - UniCat KW - Cremation KW - Funeral rites and ceremonies KW - Public opinion KW - Funerals KW - Mortuary ceremonies KW - Obsequies KW - Manners and customs KW - Rites and ceremonies KW - Burial KW - Cryomation KW - Dead KW - Mourning customs KW - Burning the dead KW - Incineration KW - History. KW - Public opinion. KW - United States KW - Social life and customs. KW - #VCV monografie 2003 KW - Crémation KW - Funérailles KW - Opinion publique KW - History KW - Histoire KW - Rites et cérémonies KW - Etats-Unis KW - Moeurs et coutumes KW - 1800s. KW - 1900s. KW - 20th century. KW - afterlife. KW - american culture. KW - american history. KW - cremation. KW - cultural anthropology. KW - cultural history. KW - cultural studies. KW - death. KW - environmental. KW - fire. KW - funeral rites. KW - funeral. KW - funereal. KW - gilded age. KW - historical. KW - human body. KW - life and death. KW - magazines. KW - mortician. KW - private life. KW - progressive era. KW - public health. KW - public life. KW - readers digest. KW - religion. KW - social change. KW - social history. KW - social studies. KW - transformation. KW - true story. KW - united states history. KW - us history. KW - world history. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:77898189 AB - Just one hundred years ago, Americans almost universally condemned cremation. Today, nearly one-quarter of Americans choose to be cremated. The practice has gained wide acceptance as a funeral rite, in both our private and public lives, as the cremations of icons such as John Lennon and John F. Kennedy Jr. show. Purified by Fire tells the fascinating story of cremation's rise from notoriety to legitimacy and takes a provocative new look at important transformations in the American cultural landscape over the last 150 years. Stephen Prothero synthesizes a wide array of previously untapped source material, including newspapers, consumer guides, mortician trade journals, and popular magazines such as Reader's Digest to provide this first historical study of cremation in the United States. He vividly describes many noteworthy events-from the much-criticized first American cremation in 1876 to the death and cremation of Jerry Garcia in the late twentieth century. From the Gilded Age to the Progressive Era to the baby boomers of today, this book takes us on a tour through American culture and traces our changing attitudes toward death, religion, public health, the body, and the environment. ER -