 Brooks discussed the cultural influences on the novel . He claimed inspiration from " The Good War " : An Oral History of World War Two ( 1984 ) by Studs Terkel , stating : " [ Terkel 's book is ] an oral history of World War II . I read it when I was a teenager and it 's sat with me ever since . When I sat down to write World War Z : An Oral History of the Zombie War , I wanted it to be in the vein of an oral history . " Brooks also cited renowned zombie film director George A. Romero as an influence and criticized The Return of the Living Dead films : " They <unk> zombies , make them silly and <unk> . They 've done for the living dead what the old Batman TV show did for The Dark Knight . " Brooks acknowledged making several references to popular culture in the novel , including one to alien robot franchise <unk> , but declined to identify the others so that readers could discover them independently . 
