Count the Dead

Coroners, Quants, and the Birth of Death as We Know It

By: Stephen Berry

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Paperback | 10 May 2022

At a Glance

Paperback
140 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.5 x 13.9 x 0.8

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The global doubling of human life expectancy between 1850 and 1950 is arguably one of the most consequential developments in human history, undergirding massive improvements in human life and lifestyles. In 1850, Americans died at an average age of 30. Today, the average is almost 80. This story is typically told as a series of medical breakthroughs Jenner and vaccination, Lister and antisepsis, Snow and germ theory, Fleming and penicillin, but the lion's share of the credit belongs to the men and women who dedicated their lives to collecting good data.

Examining the development of death registration systems in the United States-from the first mortality census in 1850 to the development of the death certificate at the turn of the century-Count the Dead argues that mortality data transformed life on Earth, proving critical to the systemization of public health, casualty reporting, and human rights.

Stephen Berry shows how a network of coroners, court officials, and state and federal authorities developed methods to track and reveal patterns of dying. These officials harnessed these records to turn the collective dead into informants and in so doing allowed the dead to shape life and death as we know it today.

Industry Reviews

"Count the Dead reverberates . . . [it] begs us to reckon the past...In an era in which counting the dead has emerged with renewed urgency, Berry's excellent book should sting our consciences."--The Civil War Monitor "Count the Dead. . . presents new perspectives on the evolution of datafication and death records. Berry argues that the systemization of statistics proved critical not just for the demographic transition but also for other societal changes in the United States, such as the civil rights movement. With this perspective, the book can be highly recommended."--H-Sci-Med-Tech "[Berry] theorizes about why counting the dead is important. Counting the dead should make the dead count; their deaths ought to be useful for something. . . . Berry gives the reader some ideas worth thinking about."--Journal of Southern History

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