Mortality, Immortality and Other Life Strategies

Zygmunt Baumana s new book is a brilliant exploration, from a sociological point of view, of the a tabooasubject in modern societies: death and dying. The book develops a new theory of the ways in which human mortality is reacted to, and dealt with, in social institutions and culture.

Reviews

'Characteristically perceptive ... this indispensable book shines harsh X-rays through the western body politic to reveal a skeleton in the closet of recent social history.' New Statesman and Society
'A brilliant, outstanding book.' Manna

'A fascinating, and at times novel, interpretation of the cultural meanings of death.' Times Higher Education Supplement

'Bauman's work taken as a whole adds up to a formidable analysis and critique of modernity and its complement.' Social History of Medicine

'Those who find pleasure ... in decoding the references, in pursuing ideas in a playful way, in enjoying once again the old academic wit and style, in exposing contradictions in our feeble settlements and cultural rapprochernents will enjoy it enormously.' Reviewing Sociology