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This remarkable book—the fruit of almost two decades of study—traces in compelling fashion the changes in Western attitudes toward death and dying from the earliest Christian times to the present day. A truly landmark study, The Hour of Our Death reveals a pattern of gradually developing evolutionary stages in our perceptions of life in relation to death, each stage representing a virtual redefinition of human nature.
Starting at the very foundations of Western culture, the eminent historian Phillipe Ariès shows how, from Graeco-Roman times through the first ten centuries of the Common Era, death was too common to be frightening; each life was quietly subordinated to the community, which paid its respects and then moved on. Ariès identifies the first major shift in attitude with the turn of the eleventh century when a sense of individuality began to rise and with it, profound consequences: death no longer meant merely the weakening of community, but rather the destruction of self. Hence the growing fear of the afterlife, new conceptions of the Last Judgment, and the first attempts (by Masses and other rituals) to guarantee a better life in the next world. In the 1500s attention shifted from the demise of the self to that of the loved one (as family supplants community), and by the nineteenth century death comes to be viewed as simply a staging post toward reunion in the hereafter. Finally, Ariès shows why death has become such an unendurable truth in our own century—how it has been nearly banished from our daily lives—and points out what may be done to “re-tame” this secret terror.
The richness of Ariès's source material and investigative work is breathtaking. While exploring everything from churches, religious rituals, and graveyards (with their often macabre headstones and monuments), to wills and testaments, love letters, literature, paintings, diaries, town plans, crime and sanitation reports, and grave robbing complaints, Aries ranges across Europe to Russia on the one hand and to England and America on the other. As he sorts out the tangled mysteries of our accumulated terrors and beliefs, we come to understand the history—indeed the pathology—of our intellectual and psychological tensions in the face of death.
Starting at the very foundations of Western culture, the eminent historian Phillipe Ariès shows how, from Graeco-Roman times through the first ten centuries of the Common Era, death was too common to be frightening; each life was quietly subordinated to the community, which paid its respects and then moved on. Ariès identifies the first major shift in attitude with the turn of the eleventh century when a sense of individuality began to rise and with it, profound consequences: death no longer meant merely the weakening of community, but rather the destruction of self. Hence the growing fear of the afterlife, new conceptions of the Last Judgment, and the first attempts (by Masses and other rituals) to guarantee a better life in the next world. In the 1500s attention shifted from the demise of the self to that of the loved one (as family supplants community), and by the nineteenth century death comes to be viewed as simply a staging post toward reunion in the hereafter. Finally, Ariès shows why death has become such an unendurable truth in our own century—how it has been nearly banished from our daily lives—and points out what may be done to “re-tame” this secret terror.
The richness of Ariès's source material and investigative work is breathtaking. While exploring everything from churches, religious rituals, and graveyards (with their often macabre headstones and monuments), to wills and testaments, love letters, literature, paintings, diaries, town plans, crime and sanitation reports, and grave robbing complaints, Aries ranges across Europe to Russia on the one hand and to England and America on the other. As he sorts out the tangled mysteries of our accumulated terrors and beliefs, we come to understand the history—indeed the pathology—of our intellectual and psychological tensions in the face of death.
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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Death in Western History
15 July 2004
Format:Paperback
This is a comprehensive survey of one thousand years (longer, really) of western attitudes towards death. By "western" were mostly talking "French", although Aries does include digressions into German, Italian, Spanish, English and American culture. I didn't find the intense focus on France to detract from the overall majesty of this 600+ page opus. For most of the thousand years, the "attitude towards death" that Aries is describing crosses national boundaires.
Aries divides his study into four overlapping historical periods: "The Tame Death", "The Death of the Self", "The Death of the Other", and "The Invisible Death". The Tame Death roughly corresponds with the pre-Christian and early middle ages. This period was characterized by a meek acceptance of passing into a long period of sleep. Death is social, and the death ritual has a central place in the society.
"The Death of the Self" is moves more into the middle and late middle ages. Here, death is used by the mendicant orders of Christianity to convert a quasi-pagan population. Thus, there is a corresponding rise in individual's concern with their own death. Also during this period, there is a rise in materialism, which creates a duality between the love of things and the renunciation of the material world which is supposed to preceed death.
The Death of the Other and the Invisible Death are familiar to most modern folks. The Invisible Death is corresponds with the post WWII American model, and the Death of the Other largely corresponds to the romantic movement (lots of weeping, lots of drama).
Aries basic thesis delves into "the Invention of Tradition" territory, i.e. that modern attitudes towards death are just that, modern, and largely without antecedent in history. Aries also points out that pre-Christian traditions of death have persisted far longer in the west then one might suppose. His main illustration for this contention is the observations that the concept of "purgatory" was not fully accepted until well into the 17th and 18th century (purgatory being an exclusively Chrisitian concept).
The research and execution can only be considered awe inspiring, but the thesis less so. Any modern reader of history is aware that "tradition" is invented. Aries is less concerned as to why this might be the case, but for me, the "why" is the interesting question.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Previewing Mortality
14 Sep 2006
Format:Paperback
Phillipe Aries takes on an impossible challenge, how eons of people have regarded death, what they thought both of and about it. It's an honest attempt to view the subject from as many disparate theologies and belief systems as are germane and then synthesize them. It's long, and not always as accessible as one might wish but much of this problem is due to a stilted translation. Those with a knowledge of French will note passages where idiomatic French has received a direct translation rather than a rewritten one which would make it flow more sensibly. What it is not is the morgantic cousin to "The American Way of Death" published decades ago. But some of the humor and lightness of touch that volume had could have been helpful. In some cultures, and this is noted, death is a joyous event. Current society has trivialized death (discount casket shops, drive through funerals) and the current turn to evangelism makes death a punishment for many. Aries is careful to see that all points of view are represented but adroitly avoids drawing conclusions. Death is what it is. Think about it. This book provides new insights in how to do that leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions.
17 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Truly an amazing work
1 Mar 2006
Format:Paperback
I have been a nurse for over 20 years and coached a lot of dying patients and familys.
I also am a history buff and this work bring the two together.
Why are my modern christian patients so afraid of death? why am I,the semi pagen, so unafraid?
A most incredible book, overlooked....
I also am a history buff and this work bring the two together.
Why are my modern christian patients so afraid of death? why am I,the semi pagen, so unafraid?
A most incredible book, overlooked....
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