Is it morbid to study the history of the dead body? Historians have largely averted their eyes, as if the corpse stood beyond time and place, beyond life itself. With its stench and decay, the human corpse inspires revulsion; it compels us to look away. But the dead body arrested the attention of all those engaged in warfare–the officers, the grave diggers, the civilians, the infantrymen, and the grieving families. They were startled into witnessing, recording, and remembering the corpse […]

Read More from “Five Ways to Read a Corpse,” with Mary Louise Roberts, WARF Distinguished Lucie Aubrac Professor and Plaenert Bascom Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin.

Is it morbid to study the history of the dead body? Historians have largely averted their eyes, as if the corpse stood beyond time and place, beyond life itself. With its stench and decay, the human corpse inspires revulsion; it compels us to look away.   But the dead body arrested the attention of all those engaged in warfare–the officers, the grave diggers, the civilians, the infantrymen, and the grieving families. They were startled into witnessing, recording, and remembering the corpse […]

Read More from “Five Ways to Read a Corpse,” with Mary Louise Roberts, WARF Distinguished Lucie Aubrac Professor and Plaenert Bascom Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin.