Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found - Tapa blanda

Larson delves into the grotesque yet wildly fascinating topic of decapitation... [Her] lively, conversational tone turns these morbid objects into something more meaningful than a mere expression of the macabre.

A brilliantly original exploration of what it is to be human. . . . Her fluently sinuous prose is by turns meditative and disquieting--and always utterly compelling.--Helen Castor, author of She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth

[W]ide-ranging and thoughtful... In an age where so many taboos are fading, the severed head retains its dreadful and sacred power.--Mike Jay

No need to explain why this nonfiction book made the top of my list... Despite the ghoulish subject, this is a closely researched, indeed, scholarly study of the bizarre customs of hunting, collecting, trading, displaying and otherwise bonding with other people's heads.--Marilyn Stasio

This idiosyncratic history of decapitation... jumps between historical and recent examples, from the invention of the guillotine in the French Revolution to Damien Hirst's self-portrait in a morgue... This morbid obsession, [Larson] argues, is common to all cultures--a realization that dawned on her when she worked at a museum that exhibited shrunken heads. Her book shares in this fascination--'dangerous but irresistible'--and makes some distinctions between the forms it takes.

A leading anthropologist presents a history of humanity's macabre obsession with decapitated heads and skulls, exploring cultural practices ranging from shrunken head collections to Madame Tussaud's model of Robespierre's guillotined remains. 25,000 first printing.