Killing the Dead provides the first in-depth, global account of one of the world鈥檚 most widespread yet misunderstood forms of mass hysteria鈥攖he vampire epidemic. In a spellbinding narrative, John Blair takes readers from ancient Mesopotamia to present-day Haiti to explore a macabre frontier of life and death where corpses are believed to wander or do harm from the grave, and where the vampire is a physical expression of society鈥檚 inexplicable terrors and anxieties.
In 1732, the British public opened their morning papers to read of lurid happenings in eastern Europe. Serbian villagers had dug up several corpses and had found them to be undecayed and bloated with blood. Recognizing the marks of vampirism, they mutilated and burned them. Centuries earlier, the English themselves engaged in the same behavior. In fact, vampire epidemics have flared up throughout history鈥攊n ancient Assyria, China, and Rome, medieval and early modern Europe, and the Americas. Blair blends the latest findings in archaeology, anthropology, and psychology with vampire lore from literature and popular culture to show how these episodes occur at traumatic moments in societies that upend all sense of security, and how the European vampire is just one species in a larger family of predatory supernatural entities that includes the female flying demons of Southeast Asia and the lustful 测辞驳颈苍墨蝉 of India.
Richly illustrated, Killing the Dead provocatively argues that corpse-killing, far from being pathological or unhealthy, served as a therapeutic and largely harmless outlet for fear, hatred, and paranoia that would otherwise result in violence against marginalized groups and individuals.
Awards and Recognition
- A History Today Book of the Year
"In this expansive volume, archaeologist Blair surveys stories of corpses rising from the dead, from classical Greece to the ‘corpse killing’ epidemics of the 17th century. . . . This meticulous account sheds horrifying light on the constancy with which women have been made to pay, even in death, for society’s larger anxieties."鈥�Publishers Weekly,聽starred review
"Wonderful stories. . . .Writers will no doubt continue to disinter the undead in their fiction. . . .Let this be their handbook."鈥擲uzie Feay, The Spectator
"Blair is to be congratulated on having produced a masterfully lucid history, filled with originality and excitement. Every page of Killing the Dead bursts with fresh insights and deliciously gory details. And, like all the best vampires, it’ll come back to haunt you long after you think you’re done."鈥擜lexander Lee, Literary Review
"Authoritative and compelling. . . .This fascinating history shows that you can't keep a good corpse down."鈥擱oger Luckhurst, History Today
"Illuminating. . . . By bringing his archaeological focus to bear on the question [of how to deal with vampires], Blair unearths some puzzling continuities and raises the stakes."鈥擟rawford Gribben, Wall Street Journal
"A fascinating cavalcade of stories."鈥擟olin Dickey, Chronicle of Higher Education
"A fascinating study of beliefs about the walking dead from ancient times to the modern world. Blair combines archaeological evidence and historical evidence and historical expertise to produce an impressively comprehensive picture."鈥擫evi Roach, History Today
"Killing the Dead is a book to die for."鈥擲imon Ings, The Telegraph
"A big (and brilliant) book. . . . Blair gathers an enormous amount of knowledge to beautifully piece together evidence for vampire epidemics, meaning times in which people in the past (and to the present day) believed in the existence of dangerous or restless dead that had to be stopped by maiming or dismembering the dead body, and that this behaviour was not an exception."鈥擬arion Uckelmann, Antiquity
"A gloriously gruesome history."鈥擲teven Poole, The Guardian
"Killing the Dead is an archaeological and anthropological study, but it is also a catalogue of how our predecessors wrestled with the problem of evil: Where do diseases come from, why do children die, why do villains rise to power?"鈥擱ivka Galchen, New Yorker
"[A] wide-ranging, absorbing study of vampires."鈥擬alcolm Gaskill, The Lamp
"Killing the Dead has laid bare a subject of exceptional importance. If the author’s argument holds, it may even be a call to action. Perhaps, in our current political moment, the time has again come for us to sharpen our stakes."鈥擩an Machielsen, Times Literary Supplement
"Richly illustrated and lucidly written, Killing the Dead is a fascinating history book."鈥�Canberra Times
“We all think we know about vampires, but John Blair brings his expertise as archaeologist and historian to reveal the disconcertingly wide range of stories and evidence about the undead across an astonishing variety of human cultures, from the ancient world to the present day. With Blair’s sure guidance, we may understand better how other cultures have sought to make sense of the terrors of the world around them.”—Diarmaid MacCulloch, author of Lower than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity
“Killing the Dead is a scholarly tour de force—a book of lasting value that will long be the definitive treatment of the subject. From the ancient through to the modern world, by way of Blair’s home turf in the Middle Ages, the author finds important and exciting things to say about the walking dead at every turn.”—Levi Roach, author of Empires of the Normans: Makers of Europe, Conquerors of Asia
“This is the first historical survey of beliefs in dangerous dead humans to take in all time and the whole of the world. It is therefore also the first to identify the way in which such beliefs wax and wane, and travel. As a result, it moves knowledge of the subject up into a whole new register.”—Ronald Hutton, author of The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present
