American McHistory

When Eric Schlosser set out to write about the all-American meal, on assignment for Rolling Stone magazine, he expected to have some fun analyzing the most kitschy, ubiquitous business success story of our times. Fast food, after all, was burgers and fries, pimpled teenagers at the cash register, relentless good cheer, an escape from home, the ultimate convenience.

What the investigative journalist found, the longer and deeper he dug into his subject, was nothing less than a "revolutionary force in American life," an industry whose influence infiltrates every nook and cranny of contemporary society.

An enterprise that began in post-World War II Southern California in response to the rise of the automobile in America's daily life, fast food has become our leading export abroad, the primary influence on our collective dietary habits, the biggest employer of low-paid, unskilled workers in a boom economy, and the model for franchise and corporate chain businesses from the GAP to Auto Zone. The fast food industry has helped shape America's landscape, buying habits, work ethic and corporate mentality.

At its roots, Schlosser concluded, the food industry serves up anything but a cheap, happy meal.

Schlosser chose Colorado Springs, Colorado as the epicenter of his investigation, "because the changes that have recently swept through the city are those that fast food -- and the fast food industry -- have encouraged throughout the United States." In the book, he heralds the entrepreneurial genius of the industry's beginnings and scrutinizes its business and marketing practices. In his research, asking what forces drive and support the industry, he visited cattle ranches, industrial potato processing plants, slaughterhouses and meatpacking facilities, even a factory on the New Jersey Turnpike where the familiar flavors of our favorite fast foods are manufactured in a test tube.

The result of his research is an American classic that has quickly captured the imagination of the national media. Since its publication in mid-January, Fast Food Nation has been reviewed and featured everywhere from National Public Radio to Entertainment Weekly, from the Wall Street Journal to the New York Times Book Review. A few critics accuse the author of overreaching, of blaming all society's ills on the fast food industry. But most critics agree that Schlosser's unique blend of social commentary and solid investigative journalism raises issues that hover just beneath the daily consciousness of the average American, issues that drive and shape the culture, issues that should not be ignored.

Fast Food Nation contains plenty of dirty-kitchen, cockroaches-in-the-milkshake-machine and "mystery meat" lore. But what's in the food is merely anecdotal compared to the larger, more pervasive cultural and socio-economic issues raised in the book.

"It's not just food they're selling," says Schlosser, referring to the relentless and far-flung marketing techniques employed by the fast food industry.

Utilizing advertising strategies aimed directly at children, the fast food industry has infiltrated the nation's schools with lunchroom franchise and advertising schemes, and has so successfully imprinted trademarks on formative minds that McDonald's golden arches are now more globally recognizable than the Christian cross.

In the 1990s, the fast food and entertainment industries -- most notably Disney and McDonald's -- joined forces in a multibillion dollar alliance to sell movie-themed and trademarked toys in kids' fast food meals. The results were phenomenal -- reinvigorated profits for the corporations and a virtual reinvention of childhood for American kids.

And fast food chains, says Schlosser, drive a huge food-industrial complex that dominates American agriculture. The industry's massive demand for beef and potatoes supports corporate production and directly undermines family farming and ranching.