Fast Food Nation: What the All-American Meal is Doing to the World (Paperback) By (author) Eric Schlosser

Full bibliographic data for Fast Food Nation

Title

Fast Food Nation

Subtitle

What the All-American Meal is Doing to the World

Authors and contributors

By (author) Eric Schlosser

Physical properties

Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 400
Width: 129 mm
Height: 198 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight: 275 g

Audience

General/trade

Language

English

ISBN

ISBN 13: 9780141006871
ISBN 10: 0141006870

Classifications

BISAC category code: BUS077000
BICMainSubject: VF
Dewey: 306.4613
Nielsen BookScan Product Class: S4.6
BISAC category code: SOC022000
BISAC category code: BUS081000
BISAC category code: HEA017000
BISAC category code: HIS054000
BISAC category code: HIS036060
BISAC category code: SOC026000
BISAC category code: SOC005000
Dewey: 394.10973

Illustrations note

With Photographs

Publisher

Penguin Books Ltd

Imprint name

Penguin Books Ltd

Publication date

04 April 2002

Publication City/Country

London/GB

Biographical note

Eric Schlosser is a correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly. He has received a number of journalistic honours, including a National Magazine Award for an Atlantic Review article, Reefer Madness. This is his first book.

Review text

In the 1950s a burger and fries became America's quintessential meal. Now McDonald's has become the largest owner of retail property in the world. It's part of a wider corporate domination: one can, Schlosser argues, live from cradle to grave without spending any money in an independently owned business. But what are the repercussions of this economic sea-change, and what are the effects on public health, nutrition and safety? Schlosser's account is unashamedly a counter-blast against late-capitalist logic. The 'fast food' world depends on uniformity. Individuality is despised; obedience in the workforce is the primary virtue. The industry reduces humans to the level of the animals used to produce standardised reconstituted meat products. Meat-packing is the most dangerous job in the USA for its workers - but the whole process lends itself to the wider proliferation of disease. The most sickening scenes in this book are of E Coli poisoning caused by the ease with which the bug can transmit itself through slaughterhouses. Meanwhile 'cannibalistic recycling' - the practice of feeding animals with the remains of other dead animals - has led to the BSE outbreak in Great Britain. Schlosser knows the food as well as anyone; he even admits much of it tastes good - even though the taste is manufactured in a lab off the New Jersey Turnpike. But he insists the real cost of this supposedly cheap food is hidden, and his book attempts to uncover long-term, subtle effects. Brand loyalty begins as early as two; the major corporations seek to capture young hearts and minds. Fast food is the culinary form of dumbing down, and correspondingly easy to sneer at. What sets Schlosser's book apart is its vast range of detail that becomes a rolling thunder. His barrage of startling facts, and pen-portraits of victims of corporate culture, builds up a picture from which the reader can draw obvious conclusions, and make his own choice next time he passes McDonald's Golden Arches - a more recognized symbol than the Christian cross. (Kirkus UK)

Main description

An investigation of the workings, and the cultural domination of Western society, of the fast food industry - from research labs to marketing strategies - which reveals the price we pay for our appetite for instant gratification. 40,000 copies sold in hardcover. "The grisliest description of fast food ever published" "Daily Telegraph".

Table of contents

Part 1 The American way: the founding fathers; your trusted friends; behind the counter; success. Part 2 Meat and potatoes: why the fries taste good; on the range; cogs in the great machine; the most dangerous job; what's in the meat; global realization; epilogue - have it your way; afterword - the meaning of mad cow.