"A history of American ideas about life and death includes coverage of topics ranging from the 17th-century Englishman who investigated a belief about life starting with eggs and the heated debates over Darwin's evolutionary findings to the role of the Space Age in changing views on planetary life to the 1970s trends in cryogenics." --Publishers description. A history of American ideas about life and death from before the cradle to beyond the grave.

"This is a Borzoi book"--T.p. verso. "Parts of this book originally appeared in The New Yorker"--T.p. verso.

Introduction: The mansion of happiness -- Hatched -- Baby good -- The children's room -- All about erections -- Mr. Marriage -- Happiness minutes -- Confessions of an amateur mother -- Happy old age -- The gate of heaven -- Resurrection -- Last words -- A chronology.