Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age (The Road and American Culture)

Rating:
Summary: Authoritative, but not light reading
Review: I enjoyed this book much more than the previous reviewer, but he has a point. FAST FOOD, like the other titles in the "Road and American Culture" series, should not be confused with the typical book on "roadside Americana": it's not a lighthearted, heavily illustrated volume designed to evoke nostalgic memories. If that's what you want, search for titles written by John Margolies or Michael Karl Witzel, or published by Chronicle Books.

This is a serious examination of casual dining in America, from the lunch wagons which once served urban laborers through the chains which now cluster near every exit along the Interstate. Taken on its own terms, the book is a success, assembling more information (well-annotated, with an excellent bibliography) than any previous title on the topic. Just be sure you know what you're getting into!

Rating:
Summary: Authoritative, but not light reading
Review: I enjoyed this book much more than the previous reviewer, but he has a point. FAST FOOD, like the other titles in the "Road and American Culture" series, should not be confused with the typical book on "roadside Americana": it's not a lighthearted, heavily illustrated volume designed to evoke nostalgic memories. If that's what you want, search for titles written by John Margolies or Michael Karl Witzel, or published by Chronicle Books.

This is a serious examination of casual dining in America, from the lunch wagons which once served urban laborers through the chains which now cluster near every exit along the Interstate. Taken on its own terms, the book is a success, assembling more information (well-annotated, with an excellent bibliography) than any previous title on the topic. Just be sure you know what you're getting into!

Rating:
Summary: Authoritative, but not light reading
Review: I enjoyed this book much more than the previous reviewer, but he has a point. FAST FOOD, like the other titles in the "Road and American Culture" series, should not be confused with the typical book on "roadside Americana": it's not a lighthearted, heavily illustrated volume designed to evoke nostalgic memories. If that's what you want, search for titles written by John Margolies or Michael Karl Witzel, or published by Chronicle Books.

This is a serious examination of casual dining in America, from the lunch wagons which once served urban laborers through the chains which now cluster near every exit along the Interstate. Taken on its own terms, the book is a success, assembling more information (well-annotated, with an excellent bibliography) than any previous title on the topic. Just be sure you know what you're getting into!

Rating:
Summary: An Easy Read
Review: I liked it so much I brought a copy for a friend of mine. It tells you EVERYTHING you could ever want to know anout fast food in America.

The book will provide you with more fast food trivia than even the nerdiest person in the world would ever want to hear.

A great coffee table book.

Rating:
Summary: An Easy Read
Review: I liked it so much I brought a copy for a friend of mine. It tells you EVERYTHING you could ever want to know anout fast food in America.

The book will provide you with more fast food trivia than even the nerdiest person in the world would ever want to hear.

A great coffee table book.

Rating:
Summary: AN EYE-OPENING HISTORY OF FAST FOOD IN AMERICA
Review: In two previous books, "The Gas Station in America" and "The Motel in America," authors John Jakle and Keith Sculle have explored the businesses which help keep travelers moving along America's highways by providing fuel for their vehicles and places to stop for the night. Now, in "Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age," Jakle and Sculle turn to the hamburger joints, fried chicken stands, and donut shops that have served "billions and billions" of meals to hungry Americans on the road. More than just providing sustenance however, fast food restaurants have served as important cultural institutions reflecting the tension between the country's regional and ethnic diversity and the growing homogenization of national tastes, as well as embodying the economic imperatives of a competitive, car-dependant society.

Travelers on America's roads and highways today see the same fast food restaurants almost everywhere: McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Wendy's. In California, Carl's Jr. and Jack in the Box are equally visible, as is Whataburger in Texas, and Stuckey's throughout the South. Regardless of whether drivers find reassurance and in the familiar architecture and food offered by these chains or speed by in dismay and disgust, they must acknowledge that such restaurants have become an inextricable part of the American landscape. It is fitting, then, that authors who take a serious look at the history of fast food establishments are, respectively, a geographer and a historic preservation scholar. Together, they explore the origins of roadside restaurants, their evolution as a business, their changing geographical distribution, and their changing social meaning. How, the authors ask, did distinctly automobile-oriented and automobile-convenient restaurants evolve as a kind of business? How did they take form as architectural expression? What sorts of regional patterns were created? What lies behind the success or failure of certain chains? Why is there no national chain of barbeque restaurants?

Jakle and Sculle emphasize to role of the entrepreneur in founding and franchising fast food chains, focusing on the intersection of personal vision-exemplified by such men as Ray Kroc, Dave Thomas, and "Colonel" Harland Sanders-and corporate logic. They also pay special attention to how chain identities were created through the coordination of architecture, decor, product, service, and operating routine across multiple locations. The authors begin their informative journey into America's culinary past with a look at the precursors to today's fast food chains: hotel dining rooms, coffee shops, soda fountains, luncheonettes, main street cafes, cafeterias, automats, and diners. Next, they examine the coming of the automobile and how its arrival began transforming the American roadside. They then turn to the history of both regional and national fast food chains, from Arby's to Arthur Treacher's, Big Boy to Bonanza, Dairy Queen to Dunkin' Donuts, Kentucky Fried Chicken to Krystal, McDonald's to Mister Donut, Sbarro to Snappy Service, and Waffle House to White Castle. Along the way, Jakle and Sculle unearth a treasure trove of facts about the restaurants that every American has visited at least once in their lifetime of driving. Deftly blending scholarship with fun and nostalgia, "Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age" helps place America's much-loved (and frequently vilified) fast food culture into fascinating historical perspective.

Rating:
Summary: As dry as a fast food hamburger
Review: This could best be described as a detailed history of chain-restaurants (not just fast food). It opens with a history of 'quick-service' eating establishments in the US, taking the reader through the history of tea rooms, roadside stands, diners, and other more recent permutations. Most of the book is devoted to histories of chain-restaurant companies, which amount to something less than riveting reading. The authors have thoroughly researched the history of every restaurant chain in painstaking detail, but rarely are these written in a way that makes for a gripping story. An exception is the Indiana-based 'Snappy Service' chain (closed in 1983), which is described in a way that brings its entrepreneur to life. The last chapter describes the pattern of chain restaurants that evolved in Springfield, Illinois. The book is profusely illustrated with well over a hundred photos and dozens of maps. One glaring error appears in a series of five maps (pp. 154-157) analyzing McDonald's domination of rival chains, in which the ratio of McDonald's to competitors was inverted.

Rating:
Summary: unreadable
Review: What could be more entertaining than a book about fast-food? What could be more fun than reading the history of Wendy's and Long john Silver, of hamburgers and hotdogs? Unfortunately the writers of 'Fast food' have a very bad case of sociologist's jargon. Most of the book is as exciting and as readable as a management study and many a paragraph goes beyond the comprehension of this reader, even though he graduated in literature. Moreover the writers do not bother to hide their cultured disdain for the food they write about. So notwithstanding the many interesting facts and observations in this book, in the end there is very little to enjoy.