'All periods of western philosophy and culture have been obsessed with death, but the horror and banality of modern death calls into question the very nature of our biological existence. Clearly and accessibly written, The Culture of Death engages with pressing current political issues: the significance of concentration camps, the distinctions and similarities between democracy and totalitarianism, the phenomenon of the refugee, and the medical/philosophical criteria of actual death.' Jonathan Dollimore, author of Death, Desire and Loss in Western Culture 'Benjamin Noys has written a thought-provoking book on the cultural change of death in contemporary western culture. Noys is clearly not only well read but equally well informed about contemporary artistic representational culture.' Michael Hviid Jacobsen, Mortality.