Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

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. 

Eric Schlosser is a correspondent for The Atlantic. His work has also appeared in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, The Nation, and The New Yorker. He has received a National Magazine Award and a Sidney Hillman Foundation Award for reporting.