
Over My Dead Body
Unearthing the Hidden History of American Cemeteries
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Narrated by:
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Will Tulin
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By:
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Greg Melville
A lively tour through the history of US cemeteries that explores how, where, and why we bury our dead
The summer before his senior year in college, Greg Melville worked at the cemetery in his hometown, and thanks to hour upon hour of pushing a mower over the grassy acres, he came to realize what a rich story the place told of his town and its history. Thus was born Melville’s lifelong curiosity with how, where, and why we bury and commemorate our dead.
Melville’s Over My Dead Body is a lively (pun intended) and wide-ranging history of cemeteries, places that have mirrored the passing eras in history but have also shaped it. Cemeteries have given birth to landscape architecture and famous parks, as well as influenced architectural styles. They’ve inspired and motivated some of our greatest poets and authors—Emerson, Whitman, Dickinson. They’ve been used as political tools to shift the country’s discourse and as important symbols of the United States' ambition and reach.
But they are changing and fading. Embalming and burial is incredibly toxic, and while cremations have just recently surpassed burials in popularity, they’re not great for the environment either. Over My Dead Body explores everything—history, sustainability, land use, and more—and what it really means to memorialize.
Locales visited in Over My Dead Body
Shawsheen Cemetery–Bedford, Massachusetts
The 1607 Burial Ground–Historic Jamestowne, Virginia
Burial Hill–Plymouth, Massachusetts
Colonial Jewish Burial Ground–Newport, Rhode Island
Monticello’s African American Graveyard–Charlottesville, Virginia
Mount Auburn Cemetery–Cambridge, Massachusetts
Green-Wood Cemetery–Brooklyn, New York
Laurel Grove Cemetery–Savannah, Georgia
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery–Concord, Massachusetts
Central Park–New York, New York
Gettysburg National Cemetery–Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Arlington National Cemetery–Arlington, Virginia
Woodlawn Cemetery–Bronx, New York
Boothill Graveyard–Tombhill, Arizona
Forest Lawn Memorial-Park–Glenwood, California
The Chapel of the Chimes–Oakland, California
Hollywood Forever Cemetery–Los Angeles, California
Nature's Sanctuary–Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
©2022 Greg Melville (P)2022 Spotify AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...




















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More editing needs done, especially Chapter 12
Great History, but made it political
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Death and the End
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More than I expected
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thought provoking
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Death should be something we talk about
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Best book I've listened to for a long time...
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The author excels at this from the beginning of the book as he contextualizes his own hometown cemetery during his time working there while a youth. However, his excellence begins to wane in the final third of the book as he moves closer and closer to the present.
By the Epilogue, he has lost his anthropological lens and has taken up a thin memoir POV. I left the book feeling cheated.
The book is worth the first two-thirds and the excellent narrator. Just stop before the Hollywood Forever chapter.
Looses Steam Near the End
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Great story telling focused on interesting cemeteries.
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My only complaint is in Chapter 12, where there was some poor editing and the reader repeats one section like six times. Otherwise, I thought the production was great.
excellent read!
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Fascinating history!
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