Fast Food Nation

The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

By: Eric Schlosser

Narrated by: Rick Adamson

Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

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 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.

Fast Food Nation is a groundbreaking work of investigation and cultural history that may change the way America thinks about the way it eats.

©2001 by Eric Schlosser
(P)2001 Random House, Inc.
Random House Audible, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Book Sense Book of the Year Award Finalist, Adult Non-Fiction, 2002

"... a fierce indictment of the fast food industry." (The New York Times)

missing parts

i have to read this book for class and being a busy mom as well as a full time college student, i thought this would be a good way to get reading done while doing other things around the house.... well i started following along in the book and noticed sections missing from the narration. big bummer for me.... this is very frustrating as i paid for the book and im not getting what i paid for. hopefully they will fix this and the next person will not get jipped...

its a good book but the audiobook has some flaws

If you could sum up Fast Food Nation in three words, what would they be?

this book was very interesting and had good information on the hidden facts about the fast food industry

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

in this book they discusses the hidden facts about fast food industry

Have you listened to any of Rick Adamson’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

no i have never listen to Rick Adamsons or any other performances before first time listening to an audio book

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

no this book was not a book i wanted to listen in one sitting because it too much information to listen to since i have to read this book for my English class i don't have to read it all in once

Any additional comments?

though the book was interesting and informed me of the practice and hidden facts of the fast food industry .I feel that as i was following the audio book with my book of the fast food nation. I felt like a lot of information in the book had gotten skipped and i would get lost since i am an audio and visual learner i need to both see and hear the text to fully understand it and this is a required book for my English class

A Real Eye Opener

This eye-opener started out rather light-hearted and humorous, BUT THEN it deveolped a rather dark and disturbing theme. The machinations of McDonald's in particular and the whole fast food industry in general have the whole world in their grip. The type of food, the way it is presented, and the way WE are herded into that Universal Drive-Up Window makes me think . . . OH NO, IT CAN'T BE!

Good food for thought (pun intended)

What is the price of extreme efficiency? I can appreciate the rewards of hard work and innovation in a capitalist society. But what is commonsensible isn?t necessarily obvious: Crime, obesity, and the loss of quality jobs take their toll but are hard to attach to what is systematic and political. I think the author provides a fair and important voice in this era of sound bites and polarization. A lot of anti-Americanism and anti-globalization is simply a reaction against the loss of community and values. These changes may not be ?progress? or very good for us. Antitrust laws were put into place for a reason (very American) and the reasons and consequences of their deterioration should be considered. It seems that many of the ills of modern society are the result of the rich and successful influencing politics to the detriment of society at large.

Great Book, but the Movie sucks.

After reading Fast Food Nation, I just want to drink water right after I finish my chicken tacos.

Horrifyingly interesting

Beware what knowledge you wish to learn, as this book will grant you a glimpse of our unknown reality!

Always a great book

We listened to this book on our drive down the west coast. Very informative. I enjoyed every minute of this book. I would recommend this book to anyone.

convinced by fast food nation

I loved listening to this book. It is very informative, but I didn't feel overloaded with facts. Schlosser has obviously done intensive research on this topic, which I appreciated. It is interesting and astonishing to hear where our food comes from and what kind of problems are related to it. Problems I would have never thought about before. I became a vegetarian, after I finished reading.

Good, but missing parts.

I loved the book
It was a huge eye opener
But the narrator skipped chunks of text at a time
I bought this audible to help me read along and stay focused because I had to get this book done in a certain amount of time for school and when he would skip chunks of text I would get lost and have to go back and reread large amounts by myself. It's hard for me to focus and I bought this audible because of that reason so the skipping was a huge upset.
Overall though the voice was clear and strong and when he was narrating it was easy to focus on his voice.
Good narrating, but I'd prefer to get all of what I'm paying for.

Important book

This is a book everyone should read (along with John Robbins.) It's the modern day equivient to Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle." My only gripe was that the author has clear anti-Republican biases, a flaw he even admits in the afterwards. Still, this book makes some very important points about the problems with factory farming and meat/poultry/dairy industry in this country. This work, along with that of John Robbins, combined with the recent "Mad Cow" situation will hopefully change things.