Fast Food Nation - the groundbreaking work of investigation and cultural history that has changed the way America thinks about the way it eats - and spent nearly four months on the New York Times bestseller list - now available on cassette! Are we what we eat? To a degree both engrossing and alarming, the story of fast food is the story of postwar America. 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 propelling 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. Along the way, he 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, 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.
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“[An]
ambitious and ultimately devastating exposé…Schlosser’s investigation reaches
its frightening peak in the meatpacking plants as he reveals the almost
complete lack of federal oversight of a seemingly lawless industry. His searing
portrayal of the industry is disturbingly similar to Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, written in 1906:
nightmare working conditions, union busting, and unsanitary practices that
introduce E. coli and other pathogens into restaurants,
public schools, and homes. Almost as disturbing is his description of how the
industry ‘both feeds and feeds off the young,’ insinuating itself into all
aspects of children’s lives, even the pages of their school books, while
leaving them prone to obesity and disease. Fortunately, Schlosser offers some
eminently practical remedies.”
—
Amazon.com, editorial review