Nonfiction Zombie Books

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Book of the Dead: The Complete History of Zombie Cinema
Jamie Russell (2005)

Description:
A full-on history of the zombie's on-screen evolution from Caribbean bogeyman to flesh-eating corpse. Spanning seven decades of horror movie history with hundreds of stills, artwork, and an exhaustive filmography, this is the complete, long-awaited history of one of horror cinema's most enduring genres. Charting the entire ghoulish history of zombie cinema, from its origins in Haitian voodoo to its cinematic debut in 1932's White Zombie, are hundreds of zombie films from America, Europe and Asia, including Bela Lugosi B movies, Italian gore films, Nazi zombies, porno zombies, and blind monk zombies.

Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero’s Vison of Hell on Earth
Kim Paffenroth (2006)

Description:
Finally, a scholar who takes zombie movies seriously. In his nonfiction masterpiece, Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero's Visions of Hell on Earth, Kim Paffenroth explores how legendary filmmaker George A. Romero uses the living dead to criticize American society, covering topics from racism to materialism, from individualism to theology. Paffenroth describes and analyzes each movie in separate chapters, and makes comparisons to Dante's Inferno. But most disturbing, he indicates parallels between Romero zombies and humans; I've long known the sharp teeth that can undercut our hearts and consciences, but nothing has exposed our fangs quite like Paffenroth s deft scalpel of analysis. A must read for zombie fans and for those elitists who demean horror movies as thoughtless escapism--Paffenroth has taken a huge step in proving these critics wrong. --D.L. Snell, Editor/Contributor, The Undead: Skin & Bones

Man, Beast, and Zombie: What Science Can and Cannot Tell Us about Human Nature
Kenan Malik (2002)

Description:
Man, Beast, and Zombie is an original and accessible book. Vast in its scope, it draws on cutting-edge sciences such as evolutionary biology, cognitive psychology, and artificial intelligence to assess what, precisely, science can and cannot explain about human nature. Kenan Malik explains the histories of these sciences (and the philosophies that underpin them) and analyzes the complex relationship between human beings, animals, and machines to explore what really makes us human.



Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie
Evans Schultes (1988)

Description:
Haitian zombification, a subject that has provoked a great deal of sensational reporting in the popular press and skepticism in anthropological circles, is analyzed in this fascinating work. The author delves into its physiological, social, and psychological impact, the result of two years of on-site study of the structure and function of the Bizango secret societies. He presents an extensive analysis of the chemical composition of various poisons reputed to induce a physiological state that could simulate death. To transform a person so affected into a zombie through antidotes is part of the pharmacopoeia of the Bizango societies. Of interest both to social scientists and the medical profession. Winnie Lambrecht, Brown Univ., Providence, R.I.

The Undead and Philosophy: Chicken Soup for the Soulless
Richard Greene and K. Silem Mohammad (2006)

Description:
Though Bram Stoker coined the term, the undead have stalked the human imagination for eons, appearing in the myths and legends of nearly all cultures. The concept of people, or unpeople, interacting with others while devoid of humanity provides a wealth of material for philosophical speculation. Encompassing George Romero’s radiation-spawned Living Dead, the “infected” of 28 Days Later, as well as more traditional zombies and vampires, the essays in The Undead and Philosophy ponder questions such as: Is it cool to be undead, or does it totally suck? Is a zombie simply someone with a brain but without a mind? Are some of the people around us undead, and how could we tell? Can the undead be held responsible for what they do? Is it always morally OK to kill the undead? Served up in a witty, entertaining style, these and other provocative questions present philosophical arguments in terms accessible to all readers.

We the living dead: the convoluted politics of zombie cinema.
Tim Cavanaugh (2007)

Description:
This digital document is an article from Reason, published by Thomson Gale on February 1, 2007. The length of the article is 3286 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Zombie Culture: Autopsies of the Living Dead
Shawn McIntosh (2008)

Description:
This collection of 12 very lively essays on the undead focuses primarily on their film work but also gives aficionados a solid background in their genesis and uses in folklore and literary metaphor. They track how those perambulating in that very wide gray area between life and death appeal to those believing their lives are just as bad, albeit largely above ground, and why new versions of zombies keep turning up with current concerns about society and science. Contributors comment on Italian zombies in films, apocalyptic zombies, gendered zombies, Romero's zombies according to feminism, hybrid zombies, gaming zombies, online zombies, recreating zombies, and the particulars of zombie sex, drugs and rock and roll. The editors provide a very helpful filmography and the cover art is hilarious.bnet.com

The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia
Peter Dendle (2000)

Description:
The exhumation of zombie films from obscurity is accomplished in terrifying detail in The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia. The first exhaustive overview of the subject, this book evaluates over 200 movies from 16 countries over a 65-year period starting from the early 1930s. It mostly treats feature-length films, covering everything from large studio productions to backyard videography, but also touches on memorable episodes of television series and miscellaneous shorts. Lengthy entries point out interesting or innovative features of the zombie portrayal in each movie, while an introduction traces the evolution of the genre and interprets the broader significance of the zombie in contemporary Western mythology. Productions credits, a brief plot summary, and alternate titles accompany each entry.