Book Description

Pat Jalland, one of Australia's most successful historians, has now turned her attention to Australian subjects. This book is the result of intensive research into where and how people have died in Australia, how they have been buried, mourned and commemmorated, and how social andregional factors have influenced mortality rates and people's consciousness of death and loss. Ways of Death describes how Australians in the past came to terms with death within the constraints and cultural perspectives of their own times. Historians in other western societies have responded to the growing interest and concern with death through books, conferences, and journals, but untilnow there has been little Australian material available to satisfy the increasing interest in the subject, stimulated by events such as debated on euthanasia, new developments in technology, and youth suicides.