A Zombie's History of the United States

February 14, 2011
This history book parody, allegedly "a first step toward a renewed awareness and interest in zombie history," is too straight-faced to be amusing. The shambling undead cannot resuscitate what amounts to a bland popular-history book; it rapidly begins reading like the old joke of adding "in bed" after the proverb in a fortune cookie. We see George Washington with zombies, Lewis and Clark with zombies, abolition with zombies, and so on and so forth. Making light of slavery, Agent Orange, and AIDS is risky business, and this book verges on the offensive with its cavalier and distasteful treatment of such subjects. Some episodes are blatantly disrespectful, like the ballroom assassination of zombie-rights activist David Z (who preferred the term "differently animated"). Concluding with recommendations to exterminate zombies entirely, or use them in place of animals for testing, and warning of the potential use of weaponized zombies in terrorism, the "Zombie's History" reads like any other tiresome polemic...with zombies.

January 1, 2011
It was only a matter of time. Zombies have become so popular and have crossed so many genre borders that it was inevitable, sooner or later, that someone would write the untold history of the living undead in America. Thankfully, this is no slapdash zombie book. The author, billed as Dr. Worm Miller (in reality, Joshua Miller), has produced a completely convincing pseudo-history. From its cover illustration of zombies attacking George Washington as he crosses the Delaware to its clever insertion of the undead into real historical events (Miller explains what really happened to the lost colony at Roanoke and why John Wilkes Booth really killed Abraham Lincoln) to its dead-on mimicking of textbook format and style, the book feels remarkably similar to straightforward historical writing. Miller doesnt play the material for over-the-top laughs, either; this isnt Dave Barrys Zombie History of the United States. Played straight, as though it were relating real historical events, it is compelling and unsettling, like Max Brooks World War Z (2006) or even Orson Welles War of the Worlds.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)