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)

no burgers for me

I would have given this book a 5 star salute if it weren't for the drudgery of details about the characters . Way too much detail and probably the book could have been a lot shorter and more gory details of the food industry . Still , there are many eye opening messages that all consumers shoud be aware of .

First time using this

I’m using audible for the first time for this specifically this book why is there no page number and the chapter aren’t consistent there’s 10 chapters why is there 8. This whole thing is confusing

Provoking

Would you consider the audio edition of Fast Food Nation to be better than the print version?

I don't own the book, but I believe the content was easier to listen to and follow than if I had read it

Who was your favorite character and why?

Who wrote these questions?? There were no characters in this book.

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

No I have not

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

No

Any additional comments?

Information is outdated, but the state of things have not improved so I believe the content is still important for people to be aware of

Can't just eat one!

I loved this book. I love knowing how everything works. I had no interest in this book's topic, but was swept away by the mystery, truth and journalistic style of this book. I am a technical person by nature and have found the foundations sometimes more interesting than the end-result of a system, application, industry or person.

This book was one that I could not wait to get plugged back into. I was horrified, inspired and awakened by the content of this book. I hope everyone interested in how things work finds this as interesting as I did.

Fantastic

This was one of the most informing books I have ever read. Every Mother and Politician should be required to read this. It should be in every library, including school librarys

Still great in 2022.

I’m just now getting heavily involved in food policy, especially in animal products, and this book filled important gaps in knowledge. From additives, workplace robberies, to human-rights violations, this book does a nice job of comprehensively covering all the issues.

Now it’s time to address the wrongs instituted by corporate greed.

????

I have the physical copy of this book and it have any of this information in it

Very informative

Should be a reading requirement for all high schools. At least to give them a general idea of how bad some things are.

I’m in the 10%

This book was very detailed and very eye opening to the deception that the fast food industry has over the American culture. Thankfully my family falls into the 10% that don’t eat McDonalds weekly. We haven’t eaten at a McDonalds in at least 15 years and don’t plan to return EVER especially after listening to this book. It’s leas likely than our current rare occasion that we will eat any fast food!!!

Facinating history, but sharply biased

The facts about the history of the american food industry are very interesting and well written. This is a very tough business to make money in. Consumer needs have changed dramatically over the last century and the best and worst efforts are effectively cronicled here.

But ... the author spoils the experience for me by reducing this subject to sharply biased judgements. It is not objective or balanced and it reveals the author's naive understanding of business. It basically ends up being a convenient platform for the author to express his political beliefs.