David Sloan

It really takes off in the middle of the 20th century.

Americans begin to really distance themselves from the dead and from death.

Why?

Why?

Well, cultural trends are one of the most difficult things to parse out.

So part of it is we know that the number of dead is actually declining.

Everybody knew somebody who had died in 1900.

It's just part of the parcel of life.

By 1950, 1960, not so much.

The infant mortality rate, for instance, in 1890s New York City is something like 130 per thousand.

And by the 1960s, that's going to be in the low teens.

So it's a really different thing.

So it's easier to distance yourself.

No, it was very intense and very public.

So the classic thing, Victoria.

Victoria's beloved husband dies.

She never wears anything but black for the rest of her life, right?

And this is not unusual.

In Italy or in England or in Italian neighborhoods in New York, it wasn't like you were a widow so you were on the open market for marriage.

you are grieving for at least a year or two years.