Aaron Lee Greenberg

Early Modern Matters of Life and Death Aaron Lee Greenberg

Book Synopsis

What is the meaning of life?


How can we live a good life?


How long will we live?


Why should we live longer?


What is the body?


What is the soul?


What happens when we die?


How is human life exceptional from the life of animals, plants, and things?





From Shakespeare to stem cells, from Francis Bacon to Black Lives Matter, this book revives the histories of life and death that created our world and continue to shape our lives. Early modern sovereignty made caring for the population's life the essential task of modern government. We now live in the age of biopower, where sovereignty decides what counts as life and which lives are worth preserving. To grasp the ethical, political, spiritual, and scientific meanings of modern life, we must return to its early modern origins. Our lives depend on it.