Examining the compelling and often poignant connection between women and the material culture of death, this collection looks at the objects women make, the images they keep, the practices they use or are responsible for, and the places they inhabit and construct through ritual and custom. 'Women and the Material Culture of Death is a book that is at once ambitious, compelling and poignant. The nineteen, cross-disciplinary, generously illustrated essays that comprise this collection reveal the hidden history of women's role in mourning the dead through a range of material practices from the early modern period to the present. As such, this book offers a vital contribution to the fields of gender and material culture studies as well as to the history of death. More than that, in an age in which the business of dying has been thoroughly commercialized, its analysis of the lives of women of the past offers us new ways of imagining our responses to death in the future.' Jennie Batchelor, University of Kent, UK 'Proffer[s] such a formidable range of materials and approaches that it would be difficult to embrace its entirety in a review. However, this diversity definitely contributes to the book's success overall. This collection marks a welcome addition to the already strong Ashgate series examining women and material culture that is edited by Maureen Daly Goggin and Beth Fowkes Tobin.' West 86th 'Women and the Material Culture of Death presents a fine set of essays ... collectively, they assist to provide the background required to gain a better understanding of what death and its associated cultural artefacts mean.' Church Monument