Fast Food Nation 25th Anniversary Edition - by Eric Schlosser (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In celebration of its 25th anniversary, and with a new afterword by the author, a new edition of Pulitzer Prize finalist Eric Schlosser's New York Times bestselling exposé on how America's fast food industry has shaped the landscape of America and the world.

Twenty-five years ago, Fast Food Nation blew the lid off the fast food industry--exposing how they've mauled our landscapes, widened the gap between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and propelled American cultural imperialism abroad. Now with a new afterword Eric Schlosser rings the alarm again, calling attention to the damage wrought by corporate control of America's food system and stressing just how the forces he first identified are even more powerful today.

Schlosser's myth-shattering survey stretches from California's 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, and even real estate.

On its publication, Fast Food Nation changed the way America thinks about the way it eats, and it remains required reading for those concerned about the dramatic impact fast food has on our economy and our health.

Review Quotes

"...Schlosser is a serious and diligent reporter..." "[Fast Food Nation] is a fine piece of muckraking, alarming without beling alarmist."

- Rob Walker, NYTBR 1/21/01 The New York Times

"Eric Schlosser's 'Fast Food Nation' is a good old-fashioned muckraking expose in the tradition of 'The American Way of Death' that's as disturbing as it is irresistible....Exhaustively researched, frighteningly convincing....channeling the spirits of Upton Sinclair and Rachel Carson....Schlosser's research is impressive--statistics, reportage, first-person accounts and interviews, mixing the personal with the global." The San Francisco Chronicle

"An exemplary blend of polemic and journalism....A tale full of sound, fury, and popping grease." --starred review Kirkus Reviews

"Schlosser is part essayist, part investigative journalist. His eye is sharp, his profiles perceptive, his prose thoughtful but spare; this is John McPhee behind the counter...." The Washington Post

"...everywhere in his thorough, gimlet-eyed, superbly told story, Mr. Schlosser offers up visionary glints....For pure, old-fashioned, Upton Sinclair-style muckraking, the chapters on the meatpacking industry are masterful." Observer

"'Fast Food Nation' is investigative journalism of a very high order. And the fit between the author's reporting and his narrative style is just about perfect. The prose moves gracefully between vignette and exposition, assembling great quantities of data in small areas without bursting at the seams." Newsday

"Schlosser establishes a seminal argument for the true wrongs at the core of modern America." Publishers Weekly, Starred

"...reminiscent of Upton Sinclair's 'The Jungle'....." Boston Globe

"...Schlosser has done huge amounts of intense, on-the-scene reporting, and he backs up his concerns very convincingly. He presents incredibly resonant images and statistics and observations the reader is unlikely to forget." --San Jose Mercury News

"'Fast Food Nation' should be another wake-up call, a super-size serving of common sense...." Atlanta Journal Constitution

"Part cultural history, part investigative journalism and part polemic...intelligent and highly readable critique...." --Time Out New York

"Fast Food Nation is the kind of book that you hope young people read because it demonstrates far better than any social studies class the need for government regulation, the unchecked power of multinational corporations and the importance of our everyday decisions." USA Today

"Fast Food Nation presents these sometimes startling discoveries in a manner that manages to be both careful and fast-paced. Schlosser is a talented storyteller, and his reportorial skills are considerable." --Hartford Courant --