The American Way of Death is an exposé of abuses in the funeral home industry in the United States, written by Jessica Mitford and published in 1963.

[2] Although her article on the subject, "Saint Peter Don't You Call Me", published in Frontier magazine, was not widely disseminated, it caught considerable attention when Mitford appeared on a local television broadcast with two industry representatives.

[citation needed] Feeling that death had become much too sentimentalized, highly commercialized, and, above all, excessively expensive, Mitford published her research, which, she argues, documents the ways in which funeral directors took advantage of the shock and grief of loved ones' friends and relatives to convince them to pay far more than necessary for the funeral and other related services, such as availability of so-called "grief counselors", a title she claimed was unmerited.

Judith Newman in the New York Times Book Review commented: "This revised and updated version of her book is no less startling, or entertaining, than the original was...[Mitford] is also prescient in predicting the rise of bottom-line-above-all corporate funeral home chains like Service Corporation International and the Loewen Group, which, as Mitford reports, are now consolidating (read: devouring) mom-and-pop operations.

"[2]The book was referenced in the seventh and final season episode of Mad Men entitled "Field Trip" (2014-04-27, S07E03), where a character quips: "We can all learn something from the funeral business.