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Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found Hardcover – Illustrated, November 17, 2014

by Frances Larson (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 304 ratings
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A serious and seriously entertaining exploration of the dark and varied obsessions that the “civilized West” has had with decapitated heads and skulls.

The human head is exceptional. It accommodates four of our five senses, encases the brain, and boasts the most expressive set of muscles in the body. It is our most distinctive attribute and connects our inner selves to the outer world. Yet there is a dark side to the head’s preeminence, one that has, in the course of human history, manifested itself in everything from decapitation to headhunting. So explains anthropologist Frances Larson in this fascinating history of decapitated human heads. From the Western collectors whose demand for shrunken heads spurred massacres to Second World War soldiers who sent the remains of the Japanese home to their girlfriends, from Madame Tussaud modeling the guillotined head of Robespierre to Damien Hirst photographing decapitated heads in city morgues, from grave-robbing phrenologists to skull-obsessed scientists, Larson explores our macabre fixation with severed heads. 25 illustrations
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  1. Print length
    336 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Liveright
  4. Publication date
    November 17, 2014
  5. Dimensions
    6.5 x 1.2 x 9.6 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0871404540
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0871404541
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"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."
― Publishers Weekly

"[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, Wall Street Journal

"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, The New York Times Book Review

"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."
― New Yorker

About the Author

Frances Larson is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Durham and the author of An Infinity of Things: How Sir Henry Wellcome Collected the World and Severed. She lives in Durham.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Liveright; Illustrated edition (November 17, 2014)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0871404540
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0871404541
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.35 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.2 x 9.6 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 304 ratings

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Frances Larson

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
304 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book interesting, educational, and entertaining. They describe the content as scholarly, well-researched, and informative. Readers also praise the writing quality as well-written, with intelligence and wit.

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InterestScholarly contentWriting quality
11 customers mention "Interest"8 positive3 negative

Customers find the book interesting, educational, and entertaining. They say it presents some interesting historical facts about severed heads.

"Facinating and I loved they way the book flowed from chapter to chapter" Read more

"This book is pretty interesting, although it is not at all sensational as I might have wished, hence the three stars...." Read more

"...This is a fairly entertaining read, but the author veers off into psychological principles that seem to complicate the reality that people are..." Read more

"This is an excellent introduction to a variety of topics surround medical specimens in museums...." Read more

7 customers mention "Scholarly content"7 positive0 negative

Customers find the book well-researched, informative, and intriguing. They say it's a great book on phrenology, history, and comparative sociology.

"...So far it's been pretty intriguing and well written...." Read more

"...It is a scholarly, thorough, and well-written meditation on heads separated from their bodies - more in the scientific, philosophical and..." Read more

"A great book on phrenology, head-shrinking and -displaying, warfare, biology, history, colonialism, mayhem, and all manners of skullduggery...." Read more

"This was well written and very well researched...." Read more

4 customers mention "Writing quality"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book well-written, with intelligence and wit. They also say it's a scholarly, thorough meditation.

"...So far the writing has remained interesting and conversational..." Read more

"...It is a scholarly, thorough, and well-written meditation on heads separated from their bodies - more in the scientific, philosophical and..." Read more

"...But... as I said, it was a very well done book. Just not what I, personally, was hoping for." Read more

"...The book is written with intelligence and wit, but I never warmed up to the topic...." Read more

Severed!!!
4 out of 5 stars
Severed!!!
Excellent read- sound historical perspective of different eras as related to the society's infatuation with the art of severed head.
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Top reviews from the United States

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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved this book!
Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2021
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Facinating and I loved they way the book flowed from chapter to chapter
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Ryan Vincent
4.0 out of 5 stars A quirky book on an an unusual subject
Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2023
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Ordered this bc another book I was reading had recommended it. So far it's been pretty intriguing and well written. It's obviously prob not for three squeamish given the subject is decapitation in human history.. it is interesting to see how Financial demand for sale to Europeans drove trade in the sales of shrunken heads and heads of the Maori. Definitely addresses the complicity and balance that museums have to strike in dealing with the human remains they possess. So far the writing has remained interesting and conversational...
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Juan Francisco
5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinaria Investigación
Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2023
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Una extraordinaria investigación, tratada con mucho racto, sobre el atractivo que causa a los humanos una cabeza/calavera. Muy buen libro, pero no es para cualquiera.
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Peter R. Ramsey
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and thorough, but that very thoroughness, makes this fraught subject become prosaic.
Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2014
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This book is pretty interesting, although it is not at all sensational as I might have wished, hence the three stars. Just for the quality of writing and the books general interest, I could have given it four stars. It is a scholarly, thorough, and well-written meditation on heads separated from their bodies - more in the scientific, philosophical and anthropological sense, than in the sadistic, political, or physiological sense. I was more interested in the process of taking heads, or having them taken, the effect or taking heads on a society and the kind of society that takes heads as an act of policy. One wants to have some grounds for understanding why the Islamist go in for this grisly act. This book does not do much to answer or even address those questions. Nonetheless, as I learned from reading it, head-taking has a long and varied history, much of it "respectable" in its own context, so maybe my question is misstated: not "Why do they take heads?" but "Why do we take heads?"
3 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A great book on phrenology
Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2016
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A great book on phrenology, head-shrinking and -displaying, warfare, biology, history, colonialism, mayhem, and all manners of skullduggery. This book really has a way of getting into your head.
2 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Opinion gets in the way of narrative.
Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2020
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Simply put Occam's Razor says, in a given a situation, the simplest explanation is often correct. This is a fairly entertaining read, but the author veers off into psychological principles that seem to complicate the reality that people are simply drawn to spectacle. Even today, the accident or disaster captivates the average person. One need not speculate past morbid curiosity or empathy. Page after page of verbiage doesn't reinforce a deep psychological explanation for a simple trait of human nature. As society evolved the spectacle of horrific death on the scaffold was deemed incompatible with our "better" natures. Governments removed the sideshow events as barbaric. The public still sought them out. Shrunken heads, trophy heads lopped off heads, medical specimens all met the humans need to collect items of interest and infamy. Putting these categories of fascination with heads in perspective is lost in a sea of rhetoric presented as fact, not supposition. Still an interesting read into the evolution of what was usually the darker side of the human condition.
3 people found this helpful
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Ashley
5.0 out of 5 stars Excited to reas
Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2021
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Item arrived fairly quickly (the post office) and in good condition. Cant wait to watch it!
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Subject 1301
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect
Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2021
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This book is in perfect condition. It showed up super quickly.
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Top reviews from other countries

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GREG PASTIC
5.0 out of 5 stars Once you start reading this you won't be able to put it down!
Reviewed in Canada on September 14, 2022
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Great book! Well written, entertaining, engrossing, informative, full of strange bits of history. Everything you always wanted to know about the history of severed heads but were afraid to ask!
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MartinG
5.0 out of 5 stars Divertido y muy interesante
Reviewed in Mexico on July 30, 2021
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Lo compre por recomendacion de Caitlin Doughty... me gusta mucho
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Janet
5.0 out of 5 stars interesting
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 8, 2024
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excellent interesting and enjoyable read
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Wetherbycat
3.0 out of 5 stars OK
Reviewed in Spain on April 28, 2021
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Didn't live up to its blurb
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Spencer
4.0 out of 5 stars awesome book!
Reviewed in Canada on May 1, 2019
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awesome book, super interesting and informative. only docking one star because, the main story I bought this or was Haydn's head, as i was doing a project for a class on death artifacts. the docked star is due to the information in the chapter about Haydn's head to not align exactly with some other accounts. Other accounts(wikipedia, and some other journals and biographies I read for example) indicated that 2 men bribed a grave digger to retrieve Haydn's head, but in this book, only Joseph Rosenbaum was mentioned, that said, I realize wikipedia may also be incorrect, but because other sources mentioned two individuals responsible for the theft of the musician's head I wasn't 100% convinced of the accuracy of this book. but the book is very interesting just the same and I absolutely recommend this intriguing macabre compilation
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