by Benjamin Ginsberg
Michigan State University Press, 2024
Paper: 978-1-61186-508-0 | Cloth: 978-1-61186-512-7 | eISBN: 978-1-60917-769-0
Library of Congress Classification HQ1073.G55 2024
Dewey Decimal Classification 306.9

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ABOUT THIS BOOK
States are thought only to exercise power over the land of the living. Benjamin Ginsberg argues otherwise, exploring the state’s reach into the realm of the Grim Reaper, bureaucratizing death to strengthen the state’s hold on life. He notes that increasingly institutions are using the regulation of death as an essential source of power. They do this by not only threatening death to their enemies but also securing loyalty and obedience by extending citizens’ lives and promising to effectuate the postmortem fulfillment of citizens’ antemortem desires. The state treats the loyal dead with respect, sometimes offering them a place in the secular afterlife of honor and memory, while consigning the faithless to the void.