The global doubling of human life expectancy between 1850 and 1950 is arguably one of the most consequential developments in human history, undergirding massive improvements in human life and lifestyles. In 1850, Americans died at an average age of 30. Today, the average is almost 80. This story is typically told as a series of medical breakthroughs—Jenner and vaccination, Lister and antisepsis, Snow and germ theory, Fleming and penicillin—but the lion's share of the credit belongs to the men and women who dedicated their lives to collecting good data. Examining the development of death registration systems in the United States—from the first mortality census in 1850 to the development of the death certificate at the turn of the century—Count the Dead argues that mortality data transformed life on Earth, proving critical to the systemization of public health, casualty reporting, and human rights. Stephen Berry shows how a network of coroners, court officials, and state and federal authorities developed methods to track and reveal patterns of dying. These officials harnessed these records to turn the collective dead into informants and in so doing allowed the dead to shape life and death as we know it today.

"An extraordinary book. This dignified, just and unbearable account of the dark heart of Sri Lanka needs to be read by everyone." — Roma Tearne, author of Mosquito The tropical island of Sri Lanka is a paradise for tourists, but in 2009 it became a hell for its Tamil minority, as decades of civil war between the Tamil Tiger guerrillas and the government reached its bloody climax. Caught in the crossfire were hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren, doctors, farmers, fishermen, nuns, and other civilians. And the government ensured through a strict media blackout that the world was unaware of their suffering. Now, a UN enquiry has called for war crimes investigation, and Frances Harrison, a BBC correspondent for Sri Lanka during the conflict, recounts those crimes for the first time in sobering, shattering detail.

“[A] vivid, gripping account of inhuman cruelty, laced with rays of hope and courage and dignity amidst the horrors” (Noam Chomsky, leading public intellectual and author of Hopes and Prospects). A dramatic true story of men and women trapped in the grip of war, Next Time They’ll Come to Count the Dead is modern crisis reporting at its best. For six weeks in the spring of 2015, award-winning journalist Nick Turse traveled on foot, as well as by car, SUV, and helicopter, around war-torn South Sudan, talking to military officers and child soldiers, United Nations officials and humanitarian workers, civil servants, civil society activists, and internally displaced persons—people whose lives had been blown apart by a ceaseless conflict there. In a fast-paced and emotionally powerful fashion, Turse reveals the harsh reality of modern warfare in the developing world and the ways people manage to survive the unimaginable. Next Time They’ll Come to Count the Dead isn’t about combat. It’s about the human condition, about ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances, and about death, life, and the crimes of war in the newest nation on earth. “The average journalist follows the herd of others. A bold one like Nick Turse goes to where the herd isn’t. His searing reporting in this book brings alive the suffering of a country that the United States, midwife to its birth, has largely forgotten.” ―Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold’s Ghost and Mirror at Midnight

It's been 11 years since Shay Storey watched as her recklessly violent gang-member mother gunned down 26-year old Sheriff John Victor Sully and buried him in the Mojave Desert. But he survived. Now, with the tools he needs to avenge his own "murder, " Sully comes back to separate truth from lies, the damaged from the damned, and a daughter from the devil herself. Martin's Press.

At a time when a global consensus on human rights standards seems to be emerging, this rich study steps back to explore how the idea of human rights is actually employed by activists and human rights professionals. Winifred Tate, an anthropologist and activist with extensive experience in Colombia, finds that radically different ideas about human rights have shaped three groups of human rights professionals working there--nongovernmental activists, state representatives, and military officers. Drawing from the life stories of high-profile activists, pioneering interviews with military officials, and research at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Counting the Dead underscores the importance of analyzing and understanding human rights discourses, methodologies, and institutions within the context of broader cultural and political debates.

The style and layout of this book greatly enhance ones ability to grasp the real truth the author seeks to bring to the readers attention. This book will likely turn out to be the most consoling and uplifting for the bereaved that has ever been published. Plainly and undeniably, this book shows that no one goes to heaven or hell ahead of others. Anyone who believes the whole counsel of the Bible will also accept this work. It is literally Bible centered. It points to passages of Scripture that reveal the whole truth about the status of the dead. The author actually shows that God has designed the human being so as to experience not one moment between death and resurrection. The author does not build any points upon philosophical reasoning or deduction, but he shows that no one remains dead longer than another due to moving from time to eternity. Almost anyone will lose all fear of death, and the degree of dread and grief will also be lessened significantly as a result of reading this book. It covers not just life after death, but also explains why natural death is necessary. The book covers this in such a manner that reveals the necessity. One gets to see that physical death is the greatest grace God has bestowed upon fallen man, saved the shed blood of Christ Jesus. One shall plainly understand why God allowed man to be tempted by Satan in the first place. This book is among the most compact, yet, simple and short in word count one will likely encounter. It contains a chapter designed to console the bereaved who may not be in a position to read the whole book at that moment.