Americans have a complicated history with death – that final darkness at the end of life. Our ancestors dealt with death on a daily basis, dreaming up countless traditions and rituals to try and understand it. Society today, however, has disconnected from death. In years past, Americans died at home. Bodies were prepared for burial in our kitchens and funerals were held for our dead in the parlor. Now, we die under the sterile conditions of a hospital, far removed from the people who love us, and our death has become a business. From the God-fearing Puritans to the aftermath of the Civil War, the Victorian descent into mourning to modern day funeral traditions, authors April Slaughter and Troy Taylor take the reader along on a journey through America’s history with death, dying, and how they’ve shaped our society today.