Description
Book SynopsisWhat can we learn from suicide, that most personal and often inscrutable of acts? This strikingly original work shows how, from treatment of suicides in historic Britain, unique insights can be gained into the development of both social and political relationships and cultural attitudes in a period of profound change. Drawing ideas from a range of disciplines including law, philosophy, the social sciences, and literary studies as well as history, the book comprehensively analyses how successful and attempted suicide was viewed by the living and how they dealt with its aftermath, using a wide variety of legal, fiscal, and literary sources. By investigating the distinctive institutional environments and mental worlds of early modern England and Scotland, it explains why suicide was treated as a crime subject to financial and corporal punishments, and it questions modern assumptions about the apparent ''enlightenment'' of attitudes in the eighteenth century.The book is divided into two pa
Trade ReviewOriginal and compelling...an important and powerful work of comparative history...a stimulating and productive read * Brian P. Levack, Peter Marshall, Julian Goodare, Britain and the World: a Historical Journal of the British Scholar Society *
This is an impressive book, rich in detailed analysis and nuance ... work of uncommon scholarship that should become required reading for scholars in the history of early modern medicine. * David Wright, American Historical Review *
a rewarding read, offering a wide-ranging and well-researched challenge to the existing historiography of suicide. * Jonathan Healey, Local Population Studies *
Table of ContentsPART I: PUNISHING THE DEAD; PART II: UNDERSTANDING THE DEAD
