Shadows in the Valley: A Cultural History of Illness, Death, and Loss in New England, 1840-1916 PDF

Rating: (2 reviews) Author: Alan Swedlund ISBN : 9781558497207 New from $26.06 Format: PDF

Download PRETITLE Shadows in the Valley: A Cultural History of Illness, Death, and Loss in New England, 1840-1916 Paperback POSTTITLE from mediafire, rapishare, and mirror link

Review

Combines anthropological and historical approaches to describe medical practices, mourning rituals, and the emotions and meanings attached to the experience of illness and death...in a small New England town from the mid-19th to the early-20th century. . . . Highly recommended. --Choice

By his intense studies of 'smaller communities at the margins of the mainstream' (Swedlund) illuminates how ordinary people dealt with major issues of life and death. . . . A rewarding read. --Yale Journal of Humanities in Medicine

'Shadows in the Valley' does an excellent job of describing the context of death and disease. . . . It deserves a wide readership among scholards of demographic history and nineteenth century New England. --Eh.net

Quite simply a remarkable work. . . . In this meticulously researched, gracefully written, and poignantly illustrated work, Swedlund weaves the strands of life and death in small communities into the larger fabric of cultural and medical history. --Historical Journal of Massachusetts

'Shadows in the Valley' does an excellent job of describing the context of death and disease. . . . It deserves a wide readership among scholards of demographic history and nineteenth century New England. --Eh.net

About the Author

Alan Swedlund is professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Direct download links available for PRETITLE Shadows in the Valley: A Cultural History of Illness, Death, and Loss in New England, 1840-1916 POSTTITLE

• Product Details
• Table of Contents
• Reviews

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press; 1 edition (August 31, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 155849720X
• ISBN-13: 978-1558497207
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Shadows in the Valley: A Cultural History of Illness, Death, and Loss in New England, 1840-1916 PDF

I just finished reading "Shadows in the Valley: A Cultural History of Illness, Death and Loss in New England, 1840-1916" by Alan C. Swedlund. The book discusses the confluence of illness, statistics, personal reactions to death and mourning and disposition of the bodies through the years. An interesting quote:

"Sociologists and psychologists of death, such as Bradbury, suggest that as death became more medicalized, it also came to be regarded as less sacred and less "natural". Bradbury and others have gone so far as to observe that in contemporary Western society, we have a notion of "the good medical death".17 In the good medical death, all the "deathwork professionals," from doctors and coroners to embalmers and funeral directors, use their skills to make death a controlled and managed sequence that is as comfortable as possible for the dying person and his or her family and friends. Death today is often regarded less as a natural process and more as the failure of medical science and technology to cure. The good medical death finds its origins in the nineteenth-century doctor's attempts to treat the dying person, to make him or her comfortable with laudanum or another sedative, and to assist the family in obtaining the services of a competent undertaker."

This is a scholarly work, with copious appendices and end notes. I'm a lay person but found it interesting through-out, although I skipped some appendices. I read this with the thoughts of how to handle health care reform in the back of my mind. I found it interesting the way government took on the imperative of attending to the public health. Children died like flies from dysentery (aka "cholora infantum" or "summer complaint" or "bloody flux").