Bodies of evidence

"In Bodies of Evidence, Ian Burney offers a reinterpretation of the role of the scientific expert in the modern democratic state. At the core of this study lies the coroner's inquest - the ancient English tribunal held to account for cases of unexplained death. Burney calls into question many of the basic assumptions about the rise of science as a model for socially authoritative knowledge. Bodies of Evidence elegantly evokes the workings of one of the more curious institutions of English civil society, an institution whose somber duties were performed with surprising (and occasionally unnerving) vitality."--Jacket.