Big Brother and the Grim Reaper

Benjamin Ginsberg is David Bernstein Professor of Political Science and chair of the Center for Advanced Governmental Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of more than thirty books, including The Fall of the Faculty, Presidential Government, Downsizing Democracy, The Captive Public: Politics by Other Means, The Value of Violence, How the Jews Defeated Hitler, America’s State Governments, What Washington Gets Wrong, and Warping Time. His college text, We the People, has been the nation’s most frequently used American government text for the past three decades. Ginsberg received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1973 and was professor of government at Cornell until 1992, when he joined the Johns Hopkins faculty.

• Contents Chapter 1. The Thanatotic Contract Chapter 2. The Secularization of Death Chapter 3. The Rights of the Dead Chapter 4. The Power of the Dead Chapter 5. Oblivion Chapter 6. Resurrection Afterword. Death and Change Notes