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CALIFORNIA SOCIOLOGY FORUM VOL. 7 

Book Review: Reconsidering Death: A Sociological Review of 
Brandi Schillace's Death’s Summer Coat 

Kayla Bellipanni 
Department of Anthropology 

California State University, Los Angeles 
 
Brandi Schillace’s Death’s Summer Coat: What the History of 
Death and Dying Teaches Us About Life and Living is a unique 
perspective on the sociology of grieving, death, and dying. It is an 
interdisciplinary examination of death practices and how they 
have shifted, especially in the modern Western context. By 
blending anthropology, sociology, psychology, and history, 
Schillace explores societal changes that have distanced modern 
society from death, creating what she views as an unhealthy 
relationship with mortality. Her work utilizes the idea that Western 
society has developed a “death-denying” culture, hiding death 
from public view and ritualizing it in increasingly private and 
medicalized ways. Through a historical and cross-cultural lens, 
Schillace critiques this shift, arguing that understanding how death 
is handled can teach us to live more fully. Sociologically, 
Schillace’s argument builds on classic ideas from scholars such as 
Philippe Ariès and Michel Foucault with topics like the 
medicalization of death, the secularization of death rituals, and the 
growing isolation surrounding the grieving process. This review 
evaluates Schillace’s contributions to established sociological 
theories, considering her insights into contemporary Western 
death practices and assessing the book’s collaborative approach 
and broader implications for sociology. 

Death’s Summer Coat is structured thematically, 
addressing various dimensions of death and dying through 
historical and cultural examples. She begins by outlining Western 
attitudes toward death from pre-modern to modern times, a shift 
famously attributed to sociologist Ariès ([1974] 1975). Death was 
a communal event in early societies, integrated into everyday life. 
Funerary rituals were public, and death was accepted as a part of 
life’s cycle. However, as Schillace explains, with the rise of 
modernity and the medicalization of life, death has been removed 
from the home and placed in hospitals behind sterile walls. 



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The book uses cross-cultural comparisons to examine 
how non-Western societies approach death in more communal and 
ritualized ways. Schillace highlights practices such as those of the 
Toraja people of Indonesia, who keep their dead in their homes for 
extended periods and view death as a gradual process rather than 
an abrupt end. She contrasts this with Western practices, which 
often involve quick removal of the body, minimal public 
mourning, and an emphasis on efficiency rather than reflection or 
community support. Throughout, Schillace advocates 
reframing death in Western society, suggesting looking to outside 
cultures and historical practices for alternative approaches to 
dying, mourning, and grief. The final chapters discuss the recent 
“revival of death” (Walter 1994) in Western culture, evidenced by 
the rise of death cafes, death doulas, and other movements that 
aim to reintegrate death into everyday life. 

Schillace’s work, overall, provides a compelling 
sociological critique of contemporary Western death practices, 
echoing many of the arguments made by classic sociologists of 
death in their arguments that the modern West has progressively 
hidden death from public view- a phenomenon has been referred 
to as the “forbidden death.” Schillace takes this further by 
exploring how the medicalization of death—where healthcare 
professionals primarily handle death—has stripped individuals of 
agency in their dying process. This shift can be seen as part of a 
larger societal trend toward medicalizing life. By situating death 
within hospitals and under the control of medical professionals, 
Western society distances individuals from their own mortality, in 
essence, turning death into a failure of medicine rather than a 
natural life event. In discussing the medicalization of death, 
Schillace uses Foucault’s concept of biopolitics—the idea that 
modern institutions exert control over the life and death of 
individuals. Foucault argues that power over death has shifted 
from being an event that took place within the family or 
community to one controlled by state institutions and medical 
authorities. Schillace’s analysis supports this, showing how 
medical advancements have enabled society to extend life but, in 
doing so, have also pathologized death itself. 

While Schillace’s critique of medicalization is 
sociologically grounded, her reliance on cross-cultural 



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CALIFORNIA SOCIOLOGY FORUM VOL. 7 

comparisons occasionally oversimplifies the complexity of death 
practices. For instance, her discussion of the Toraja people lacks a 
deeper exploration of how these practices are embedded within 
the culture’s specific social and religious frameworks. While 
Schillace’s examples are illuminating, they could benefit from 
more sociological depth, such as analyzing how these practices 
are tied to broader social structures like kinship, religion, and 
power. Moreover, her argument for a “return of death” in Western 
society aligns with Walter’s (1994) theory of the “revival of 
death,” which suggests that after decades of avoidance, death is 
making a cultural comeback. Movements like death cafes- where 
people gather to discuss death- or the popularity of memoirs and 
literature about death are signs of this revival. Schillace notes that 
she views these as positive steps toward reintegrating death into 
everyday life and allowing people to confront mortality more 
openly. Sociologically, this reflects a shift from the privatization 
of grief and dying to a more public engagement with mortality. 
However, some critics argue that while these movements may 
represent a shift in discourse, they are still relatively niche and do 
not reflect broader societal change. Schillace’s argument might 
have benefited from addressing these critiques more directly when 
considering whether these movements have the potential to 
fundamentally alter mainstream attitudes toward death. 

Brandi Schillace’s Death’s Summer Coat offers a valuable 
sociological reflection on the ways in which death is managed, 
understood, and ritualized in contemporary Western society. Her 
critique of the medicalization of death and the privatization of 
grief resonates with long-standing sociological concerns about the 
alienation of individuals from communal, meaningful rituals 
surrounding death. By drawing on cross-cultural examples, she 
challenges Western readers to reconsider how death and mourning 
are approached, suggesting that more open practices might help to 
reduce the fear and isolation surrounding mortality. However, 
while her cross-cultural comparisons are interesting, they often 
need more sociological depth to fully appreciate the complexity 
of these practices in their own contexts. Furthermore, her 
optimism about the “return of death” in Western society may be 
somewhat overstated, as these movements remain largely 
subcultural. Nonetheless, Schillace’s book contributes 



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CALIFORNIA SOCIOLOGY FORUM VOL. 7 

meaningfully to the growing field of the sociology of death and 
dying, offering a thought-provoking reflection on what the history 
of death can teach us about living. 

 
REFERENCES 

Ariès, Philippe. [1974] 1975. Western Attitudes Toward Death: From the 
Middle Ages to the Present. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins 
University Press. 

Foucault, Michel. 2009. The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de 
France, 1978-1979. Edited by Michel Senellart. Translated by 
Graham Burchell. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Schillace, Brandi. 2015. Death’s Summer Coat: What the History of Death 
and Dying Teaches Us About Life and Living. New York: Pegasus 
Books.


	Book Review: Reconsidering Death: A Sociological Review of Brandi Schillace's Death’s Summer Coat - Kayla Bellipanni



