The Last Great Necessity: Cemeteries in American History (Creating the North American Landscape) - Hardcover

Sloane

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801840686 ISBN 13: 9780801840685

Publisher: John Hopkins University Press, 1991

Synopsis

Traces the history of American cemeteries from colonial times to the present day. This study looks at how small family or church graveyards were transformed into large, commercially operated lawn-park cemeteries.

About this title

Review

"Four generations of David Charles Sloane's family have designed, landscaped, and managed cemeteries, so when he tells that story in The Last Great Necessity he does so with a professional's equanimity and expertise. In his exploration of the evolving design, economics, and social role of the American cemetery, Sloane handily demonstrates the cemetery's vital connection to popular culture, one he believes to be at least as strong as its more obvious tie to religious custom." -- Voice Literary Supplement

"An important contribution to an understanding of how Americans perceived death and to the growing commercialization of burial practices and customs. The more than fifty illustrations and tables provide dramatic evidence of a changing cultural form." -- Historian

"The most comprehensive history of American cemeteries yet published... Sloane's most original contribution is his analysis of the management side of cemetery life, showing how economic changes and institutions affected religious and aesthetic ideals in the cemetery." -- Journal of American History

About the Author

David C. Sloane teaches at Dartmouth Medical School. Four generations of his family have designed, landscaped, and managed cemeteries in Ohio and New York.Creating the North American Landscape.Gregory Conniff, Bonnie Loyd, and David Schuyler, Consulting Editors.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801840686
• ISBN 13: 9780801840685
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320