Vampires, Burial and Death

by Paul Barber

Barber examines vampire "flap" stories and proposes that vampire beliefs arose, and were reinforced, by a general ignorance of natural processes of decay. I disagree with his thesis, which is hardly radical -- contemporary writers in the 18th century ventured the same explanation for the mass vampire panics. But the book is widely cited and worth reading for sake of reference. Before writing this book, Barber published a shorter explication of his argument as an article in The Skeptical Inquirer.

Softbound Yale University Press (1988)