Exhumed : unearthing the history of the American vampire / Aaron Mahnke.

Includes bibliographical references.

Part one. Playing God -- Blood & glory -- Electric dreams -- Homemade -- Mary, Mary -- Part two. Corpse medicine -- A recipe for health -- Overly sympathetic -- Leftovers -- That's a wrap -- Part three. Vitalism -- Weight loss -- This plea of the grave -- Do know harm -- Thicker than water -- Part four. Managing death -- Wait and see -- A ring of truth -- A grave threat -- Bloated -- Part five. Mercy Brown -- Stoney ground -- Pieces & players -- Down to brass tacks -- Lesson learned.

"An engrossing and macabre exploration of the folklore and early medical practices that led to the New England Vampire Panic in the 1890s, from critically acclaimed podcaster and bestselling author Aaron Mahnke. What would drive a man to exhume the body of his daughter and remove her heart? That question has haunted Aaron Mahnke, creator and host of the award-winning podcast Lore. Fueled by a decade of research, Mahnke excavates the past to understand the hysteria that fueled the ghastly exhumation of Mercy Brown in 1892, who like her mother and sister before her, succumbed to 'consumption' at the age of 19. With Exhumed, Mahnke presents a unique history of the intersection of folklore and science, and how pop culture and both genuine medical advancements and pseudoscience of the time shaped the perspectives of people in 19th century America. From the death of George Washington to Mary Shelley writing Frankenstein, Mahnke leads reads on a fascinating journey through history, touching on methods of mummification, the multifaceted role of executioners, medicine made from corpses, European folklore that traveled across the Atlantic, and so much more. He reveals that as shocking as Brown’s exhumation might seem, it also reflected surprisingly common attitudes and beliefs about the relationship between the dead and the living, the nature of science and magic, and the fate of a human soul. It all builds to a revelatory understanding of human behavior that continues to this very day"-- Publisher.