Rating: 
Summary: A Man With an Axe to Grind.
Review: I guess I see where this was supposed to be going, but I think we get lost someplace.The historic and business stuff is interesting, but the belabored meat packing stuff fails to strike me as fast food-specific...I mean, wouldn't Americans eat meat even if there wasn't a McDonalds? The premise is great, but the book gets sidetracked too often. Much of it is truly fascinating...but the association to the core topic of fast food is weak at best.
Rating: 
Summary: Modern Day Jungle
Review: This is a pretty disturbing book about fast food. I was reading it on an airplane on the way to San Francisco when the stewardess brought be some sort of 'steak' sandwich. I couldn't eat it after reading the stories of the meat packing companies such as IBP. This book primarily deals with McDonalds, but includes others as well. Covers a lot of the facets of the fast food industry including history, advertising, sprawl, employee treatment, crime related to, where the food comes from, chemical treatment to make it taste 'good', and others. Definitely worth a read.
Rating: 
Summary: Young Adolescents + Fast Food = Obesity
Review: As the co-author of three books for parents of young adolescents (Roller-Coaster Years, Parenting 911, and Cliques), I have long been concerned with the youthful addiction to fast food. Parents frequently come to post on our message boards at Parent Soup to complain about their children's eating habits. How did our children become such bad eaters? As Schlosser points out in his well-written book, children's tastebuds quickly become accustomed to the high-fat, salty taste of chicken nuggets and Big Macs. If a child doesn't develop a palate for good food at a young age, he never will. Parents unwittingly play into this scheme. Fast food is cheap, quick, tasty (thanks to the flavor industry), filling, and an easy answer to "What's for dinner?" With more dual-working couples, endless after school activities, and limited budgets, grabbing take-out has, for many families, become a way of life. Unfortunately, families sacrifice good nutrition, as well as the traditional evening meal. How can we be surprised that diseases of the old---obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure---now plague our young people? Schlosser's book is a must read for any parent who is concerned about her child's eating habits. After digesting the book's content, a parent may think twice about heading for the drive-through.
Rating: 
Summary: Pathetic drivel; Upton Sinclair he ain't
Review: I laughed out loud at places in this book, though not where the author wanted me to. It contains every left-wing cliche in the book about modern business and is biased. My favorite example is his criticizing Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonalds, because -- hold on to your seats -- Kroc once offered to go into partnership with Walt Disney (they had served together in the Red Cross ambulance corps during World War I) and McDonalds and Disney have done some joint ventures, and Walt Disney once hired Werner von Braun to narrate a film about space exploration for Disney in the 1950's and von Braun had been a rocket scientist for the Germans during World War II and some of the raw material he used might have been made by concentration camp labor. Huh? Another major flaw: Ignores the fundamentals of business. This just in: no one HAS to eat at McDonalds. People do so because they want to. McDonalds in turn tries (successfully) to understand what consumers want and give it to them. It also tries to make a profit on its operations so it can stay in business and expand. And no one HAS to work there; people do so because they want to. The author makes this natural way of life sound very sinister. It is not. This book is hysterical nonsense. Instead of wasting his time writing it, the author should go out and open a restaurant himself, one which practices all the "virtues" he thinks fast food restaurants lack. Serve the food you think people should eat, pay your help wages you think are just and let them unionize, etc. Offer the alternative instead of moaning and whining about the successful chains. And let's see how long your ideas last in the real world...
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Summary: Must reading for consumers!
Review: This is the first time I've felt compelled to write an Amazon book review. After reading "Fast Food Nation," I, for one, will never set foot into another McDonald's, and I certainly will not let my children eat ground beef in their school cafeterias. That is how disgusting the slaughterhouse industry has become. It is a terrible shame that America's fast food restaurants serve a better grade of ground beef than our public schools. It is also terrible how slaughterhouse employees are treated, all in the name of profits. It is terrible that our nation's children are the most obese in the world. It is terrible that artifical flavorings have to be added to fast food to make it taste -- and smell -- like it should. I pray that George W. Bush doesn't capitulate to these special interest groups, but I have serious doubts. As Schlosser writes, the only way to have an impact is to stop eating the food. Maybe if Oprah gets wind of this...
Rating:
Summary: Anti-Capitalist Mindjunk
Review: If you're expecting to read anti-capitalist diatribes commonly found from the political left, you won't be disappointed. For example, the author quotes a sociologist (no doubt yet another of the leftists that infests our nation's universities) as saying "... the fast food industry [celebrates] a narrow measure of efficiency over every other human value." The author himself decries the allegedly "low pay" of the industry. Think about the valuable work experience gained the mostly young workforce gains. I wasn't underpaid making less than $4 an hour as restaurant worker when I was 17 years old -- if I had been, I could have easily found employment elsewhere for more money. Also, nobody forced me to work in a restaurant -- it was the best option available to me, and I took it. Best of all, I used the experience there as a foundation to attain bigger and better jobs. I could go on, but astute readers will get my point. Freedom, capitalism, and individual rights are the American way. You don't like that? Take this book with you to Cuba or North Korea and enjoy yourself in those anti-capitalist utopias... and tell Comrade Schlosser hello when you arrive.
Rating:
Summary: Would you like to SuperSize that?
Review: My small town has a McDonald's - everyone I know has eaten there, even though they complain about how chain stores are homogenizing the world. Fast Food Nation throws our love/hate relationship with fast food into sharp relief, making a compelling case for being more thoughtful about what we choose to eat and even the type of society we want to promote. It's odd: you read the book and remember the taste of your last Big Mac and the smell of the fries even as you're tempted to swear off meat forever thanks to the shady practices Schlosser details (skip page 202 if you have a weak stomach!). The book is particularly strong because Schlosser never lets his opinion overwhelm the evidence, and the writing is clear and convincing throughout - he sustains his theories to the end. I couldn't put it down - you should pick it up!
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Summary: Empty Calories, Empty Heads
Review: It isn't that this book JUST reveals fast food for the gunk that it is--its the way fast food is used as a link to much about what is wrong with America. FFN goes to the heart of the nations need for greed. The interdependence between cash lust and schools, architecture, physical landscape, religion -- the very air that we breathe--is revealed as the crappy erector set that it is. Eric Schlosser reminds us to be diligent in protecting what we Americans have left.
Rating:
Summary: Required reading for citizens of McWorld
Review: This is most compelling book I've picked up in years. Every chapter, filled with fascinating, eye-opening stories, could have become a separate book. This is the story not just of the fast food industry, but of corporate America, and its relentless pursuit of profit uber alles. Schlosser touches upon franchising; Disney; Coca Cola; corporate infiltration of schools; motivational speakers; the history of Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Anaheim, and Plauen, Germany; P.R. campaigns; the destruction of America's trolley car systems; the plight of traditional ranchers; lobby groups and the buying-off of politicians; how products get their flavours; international resentment towards American globalization; and corporate hatred of labour unions. And he manages to keep juggling all of these balls in a totally assured and engrossing manner. Be warned: cynics will be left feeling even more cynical. The chapters detailing how beef is brought to market are especially chilling, and will have you wondering about everything you eat. Schlosser also manages to accomplish all of this without coming across as a finger-pointer or ranter. He presents both sides of the issue (even the opinion of ranchers - really straight-up guys - who argue that cows not slaughtered are just picked off by coyotes and vultures anyway). But the information he conveys here is important. The world of consumerism seems to present limitedless choices, and yet we often don't know much about the products we're choosing. Which is how the producers want it, since they fear the truth would scare customers away. And this is where we come to the ultimate message of the book: however powerful these big companies may seem, consumers can bring them to their knees with the simple act of keeping their wallets shut. In an age where the power of governments has given way to the power of corporations, this is the most important political, democratic act available to us. And this is a message which everyone really needs to hear. I can't recommend this book highly enough.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Book
Review: I used to read quite a few books, however, since the invention of the internet, I have somehow found this glowing screen to be more comforting than reading a good book. Until I heard about this one. As stated by the title, Fast Food Nation, my first inclination was that it was strictly based on fast food, and this is definitely not the case. This book is more of a social commentary on almost every aspect of modern day life in terms of consumerism, corporations, and even our own Government. I purchased it today, and have been reading it nonstop since I walked in the door. In fact, I was so excited about this book, I had to post this review. I'm only halfway right now, and plan on getting back to it once I finish typing this up. This is Eric's first book (hopefully not his last) and I think it's wonderful. His writing style is informative, straight to the point and fun to read. Very fact-orientated without his own personal judgement calls. From the start of the fast food/consumer age all the way up til the apathetic present with everything in between. My favorite quote from the book so far, which I think unfortunately rings true in many of our industries of today: "Moultan says the fry companies now tend to be run by outsiders, by 'MBA's from Harvard, who don't know if a potato grows on a tree or underground'." This book is a must-read, whether you are into fast food, sociology, marketing or even psychology.
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