The Zombies Are Coming: The Realities of the Zombie Apocalypse in American Culture (Revised and Expanded Edition)

Look anywhere in America these days, and you’ll find the living dead: they’ve invaded TV shows, films, comics, novels, and video games. These monsters dominate pop culture in ways that titillate and terrify us, but to some people, zombies aren’t just fiction.

And zombies are just the beginning: America’s real obsession lies in the zombie apocalypse. Our culture loves to imagine the world at its end, and some Americans do more than imagine: they actually hope that the zombie apocalypse will occur—and they’re preparing for it. Just look at the rise of doomsday preppers, the ever-growing fascination with guns and personal arsenals, and the military’s use of zombies in training exercises. Today, the line between zombie fantasy and reality is more blurred than you might think. When what is supposed to be horror fiction can quickly become horror fact, the consequences are more destructive than our greatest imaginings.

How do we know the zombies are coming? Because they’re already here.

“A perfect guide through the unrelenting, decaying, hordes of our contemporary zombie apocalypse.” -Sean McCloud, author of American Possessions: Fighting Demons in the Contemporary United States