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Fast Food Nation

By Eric Schlosser

(145)

| Hardcover | 9780395977897

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Book Description

Are we what we eat?
To a degree both engrossing and alarming, the story of fast food is the story of postwar Amerca. Though created by a handful of mavericks, the fast food industry has triggered the homogenization of our society. Fast food has hastened the malling of our landscape, widened Continue

Are we what we eat?
To a degree both engrossing and alarming, the story of fast food is the story of postwar Amerca. Though created by a handful of mavericks, the fast food industry has triggered the homogenization of our society. Fast food has hastened the malling of our landscape, widened the chasm between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and propelled the juggernaut of American cultural imperialism abroad. That's a lengthy list of charges, but Eric Schlosser makes them stick with an artful mix of first-rate reportage, wry wit, and careful reasoning.
Schlosser's myth-shattering survey stretches from the California subdivisions where the business was born to the industrial corridor along the New Jersey Turnpike where many of fast food's flavors are concocted. He hangs out with the teenagers who make the restaurants run and communes with those unlucky enough to hold America's most dangerous job -- meatpacker. He travels to Las Vegas for a giddily surreal franchisers' convention where Mikhail Gorbachev delivers the keynote address. He even ventures to England and Germany to clock the rate at which those countries are becoming fast food nations.
Along the way, Schlosser unearths a trove of fascinating, unsettling truths -- from the unholy alliance between fast food and Hollywood to the seismic changes the industry has wrought in food production, popular culture, and even real estate. He also uncovers the fast food chains' efforts to reel in the youngest, most susceptible consumers even while they hone their institutionalized exploitation of teenagers and minorities. Schlosser then turns a critical eye toward the hot topic of globalization -- a phenomenon launched by fast food.
FAST FOOD NATION is a groundbreaking work of investigation and cultural history that may change the way America thinks about the way it eats.

Critics

  • Meat is murder

    Fast Food Nation: What the All-American Meal is Doing to the World Eric Schlosser (Penguin, £6.99) If you read this book, I defy you to eat a mass-produced hamburger again. This column had a soft spot for the Burger King Bacon Double Cheeseburger (me ... (read full critics)

    guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

  • Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal By Eric Schlosser

    aps nothing is so ubiquitous in 21st-century America as fast food. Fully one-half of the country's food expenditures takes place in restaurants, and the large majority of those dollars is spent on fast food. It is no surprise that the two best-known ... (read full critics)

    bookpage published on Mon, 13 Sep 2010

9 Reviews

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  • 1 person find this helpful

    Don't see the movie, read the book!

    I have never been a fan of fast food but before reading this book, my concerns were health related only. The book gives you a different point of view about the Fast Food culture.

    It shows you how it really affects many aspects in society you are not usually aware of (marketing, city design, f ... (continue)

    I have never been a fan of fast food but before reading this book, my concerns were health related only. The book gives you a different point of view about the Fast Food culture.

    It shows you how it really affects many aspects in society you are not usually aware of (marketing, city design, farming, environment, etc)

    The book is highly documented (as far as I know, the author has never been sued for any of statements in the book) and weel researched.
    It is easy to read too. It is a shame the movie sucked so badly

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    Farfan Eduardo said on Oct 2, 2008 | Add your feedback

  • This is an insightful book that opens our eyes on what is really going on behind major fast food chains like McDonald's. Far from being just restaurants, they are gigantic corporations influencing just about every aspect we can think of - farms, factories, governments, you name it. The book is ver ... (continue)

    This is an insightful book that opens our eyes on what is really going on behind major fast food chains like McDonald's. Far from being just restaurants, they are gigantic corporations influencing just about every aspect we can think of - farms, factories, governments, you name it. The book is very well researched, and is careful not to sound too accusatory (probably out of a fear of lawsuits), but still drives home the point that fast food corporations have grown too powerful. Naturally, too much power leads to corruption.

    My only complaint is the book's occasional veering off in irrelevant directions, like when it talks about Walt Disney. But it's just a minor nuisance.

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    Holmes said on Aug 26, 2011 | Add your feedback

  • A sobering look at what goes into a typical fast food meal ... including illegal immigrant labor, low wages, dirty kitchens, meat with shit ... shall I go on? Think twice about eating that burger! Read this and find out how the multi-billion fast food industry is taking its customers for a ride.

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    guiltlessreader aka screamingbanshee said on Apr 3, 2010 | Add your feedback

  • I red it for my final exam and it had been really a shock! i think it should be read as course book in every university's class!

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    Iri_83 said on Mar 9, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • A must read for the fast-food lovers and fast-food haters. You can learn what you're eating from this book. I wonder how the movie came out.

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    Goyoko said on Feb 1, 2010 | Add your feedback

  • The Fast Food Industry In A New Light

    I couldn't put this book down, it really did put the fast food industry into a new light, it was touching in parts and possibly justifies a reform of the industry.

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    Richardtherebel said on May 26, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

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9780395977897 Hardcover $26.00 $22.23 bn.com
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