Why read This Mortal Coil?

Book cover of This Mortal Coil

Book description

A GUARDIAN, ECONOMIST AND PROSPECT BOOK OF THE YEAR 'A superb book' Simon Sebag Montefiore 'An empowering story of human ingenuity' Economist 'Full of curious facts' The Times Causes of death have changed irrevocably across time. In the course of a few centuries we have gone from a world where…

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Death

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History

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Why read it?

1 author picked This Mortal Coil as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Helen Frisby

Author

I love this book partly because it’s a great source of facts and statistics about death and dying throughout the ages.

However it also tells a compelling story of how dying has changed: from short lives often ended abruptly by accident or infectious disease, to what sociologists call ‘the predictable death trajectory’ of gradual death from the diseases of old age and modern lifestyles.

I’m also intrigued by the author’s vision of death and dying in the future: maybe medical advances will even conquer death itself.

From Helen's list on The best books on how to die well: past, present and future.