"Readers of "Purified by Fire" will find themselves enthralled by their own history and left pondering the disposition of their own remains. Prothero has crafted a thoroughly admirable book, a model for writing cultural history on religiously significant topics. The scholarship is exemplary. Prothero is accurate, critical, anlaytical, and all the while, he tells a good story." --Ronald L. Grimes, author of "Reading in Ritual Studies" (1996) and "Deeply into the Bone: Re-Inventing Rites of Passage" (2000) <BR>"In "Purified by Fire" Stephen Prothero deals with the history of cremation in a superbly innovative and sophisticated way. His training in American religious history and the history of religion shines through, and his ability to situate debates over cremation in the larger social and cultural ecology makes the arguments even more compelling for the reader. The scholarship here is superior."--Gary Laderman, author of "The Sacred Remains: American Attitudes Toward Death, 1799-1883" (1990)