Here is the classic anatomy of America's funeral practices, revised, expanded, and brought up-to-date for a new generation. This revised edition contains completely new chapters on, among other things, prepayment ("Pay Now - Die Poorer") and the new multinational corporations ("A Global Village of the Dead"), as well as a jaundiced look at the failure of the Federal Trade Commission to enforce the laws that the original edition of this book helped bring about. And, of course, there's a total updating of the facts and figures that tell the tale.

Includes index.

1.Not selling -- 2. The American way of death -- 3. The funeral transaction -- 4. The artifacts -- 5. The story of service -- 6. The rationale -- 7. The allied industries -- 8. God's little million-dollar acre -- 9. Shroudland revisited -- 10. Cremation -- 11. What the public wants -- 12. Fashions in funerals -- 13. The newest profession -- 14. The nosy clergy -- 15. The Federal Trade Commission -- 16. A global village of the dead -- 17. Funerals in England then and now -- 18. Press and protest -- 19. Pay now--die poorer -- 20. New hope for the dead.