The interest and importance of the social history of death have been increasingly recognized during the last thirty years. Ralph Houlbrooke examines the effects of religious change on the English `way of death' between 1480 and 1750. He discusses relatively neglected aspects of the subject, such as the death-bed, will making, and the last rites. He also examines the rich variety of commemorative media and practices and is the first to describe the development of
the English funeral sermon between the late Middle Ages and the eighteenth century. Dr Houlbrooke shows how the need of the living to remember the dead remained important throughout the later medieval
and early modern periods, even though its justification and means of expression changed.
Industry Reviews
`Professor Houlbrooke provides a coherently convincing basis for his richly textured study in which the changes of the Protestant Reformation were a pivotal point. ... [He] uses the extensive literature that has arisen from the study of wills in two excellent chapters that lie at the heart of a sensitively nuanced examination of preparation for death.'
Rod Ambler, Reviews in History
`In the particular case of early modern England ... what has been missing so far has been a thorough examination of the range of evidence, in manuscript and printed literature as well as surviving artefacts. Bits of the story have been told, notably about funerals and memorials. David Cressy's Birth, Marriage and Death (1997) found space for much of it, but left areas still to be explored. Now Ralph Houlbrooke has filled the gap, in a work which combines
exhaustive research and a wealth of illustrative detail with a sensitivity to the complexities of change.'
Paul Slack, Times Literary Supplement
`It seems unlikely that the job will need to be done again, and other historians will mine his book for evidence on a host of related subjects, from the history of religion and the family to the history of embalming and undertakers.'
Paul Slack, Times Literary Supplement
`the cumulative effects of the Reformation were profound. Houlbrooke illumintates some of them by means of a careful analysis of relatively familiar sources ... Funerals sermons proliferated all over Protestant Europe in the seventeenth century, and Houlbrooke provides the first proper account of their English history.'
Paul Slack, Times Literary Supplement
`These are all aspects of the public face of death, and they are richly illustrated in this book. What of its private face, of the feelings and behaviour of close relatives of the dead and even of the dying? It is here that Houlbrooke treads on the most difficult ground, the history of sensibilities and emotions, and he does so with commendable restraint. He draws occasionally on the findings of modern psychological studies of grieving and dying, but in
general he sticks closely and professionally to his last: the historical evidence ... There are points where the historian can go no further, and we must be grateful to Ralph Houlbrooke for taking us so
far. His is the kind of acute and measured scholarship which shows what can be examined and imagined in the past -- and what cannot.'
Paul Slack, Times Literary Supplement
`a lucid, fascinating and engaging account of the place of death in early modern society ... Dr Houlbrooke has provided a thoughtful and coherent analysis of early modern death, one given a particularly admirable depth by a splendid combination of immersion in the sources with a critical acumen which prevents him from being bogged down in details.'
Tom Webster, History, January 2000
`This very substantial monograph finds one of the most distinguished social historians of early modern England writing at the height of his powers. As we would expect, the book is profoundly researched and meticulously presented ... Houlebrook handles prescription and practice with equal mastery, but he is at his best with individual experience ... This must be a near definitive work; it deserves to be widely read and pondered.'
Anthony Fletcher, EHR November 1999
`This long-awaited book follows naturally from ... earlier work and displays the same soundness of judgement and comprehensive knowledge of the sources that we have been led to expect.'
W. J. Sheils, University of York, Heythrop Journal, vol 40, no 3, July 1999
`this monograph constitutes a major contribution to historical thanatology and will stimulate discussion for years to come. Highly recommended.'
D.R. Bisson, Belmont University, Choice, Sep 1999
`He has provided a lucid, fascinating and engaging account of the place of death in early modern society ... Dr Houlbrooke has provided a thoughtful and coherent analysis of early modern death, one given a particularly admirable depth by a splendid combination of immersion in the sources with a critical acument which prevents him from being bogged down in details.'
Tom Webster, History, Vol 85 No 277 Jan 2000
`This book fully exemplifies the traits we have come to associate with Ralph Houlbrooke's work: comprehensive, temperate, sound scholarship ... This work is the most thorough history of death currently available.'
Linda Pollock, Social History, Vol 25 (1) Jan 2000
