cover image A Zombie's History of the United States

A Zombie's History of the United States

Worm Miller, Ulysses, $13.95 trade paper (228p) ISBN 978-1-56975-860-1

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. (Jan.)