McDonaldization: The Reader

This book will publish in a new edition in December 2009. We are no longer supplying instructors with complimentary review copies of this edition.* Please click here to request a review copy of the new edition.

* If you need an urgent desk copy of the existing edition for a class this semester, please call 1-800-818-7243 and we will be pleased to process your request.

The Second Edition of McDonaldization: The Reader includes a wide array of sources, from journal articles, to essays from edited books, to newspaper, and magazine articles. George Ritzer, best-selling author of McDonaldization of Society, has updated this popular anthology to build upon and go beyond the thesis of McDonaldization. Classic articles from the First Edition remain in this volume and are supplemented by a significant number of new pieces which bring the discussion about McDonaldization up to date.

New to this Edition:

• The volume includes interviews with two of the most important recent contributors to our understanding of McDonaldization― documentarian Morgan Spurlock ("Supersize Me") and journalist/author Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation).
• A whole new section (Part IV) discusses the implications of McDonaldization for globalization, and includes several essays that critically analyze the relationship between these concepts.
• Discussion questions and "Thinking Critically" sections aid students in reviewing the material presented and further extending the conversation about and surrounding McDonaldization.

Intended Audience

This reader can be used in conjunction with McDonaldization of Society, Revised New Century Edition, in place of it, or as a supplementary text in a variety of courses, including Introduction to Sociology, Popular Culture, Social Theory, and Globalization.

George Ritzer is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, where he has also been a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher and won a Teaching Excellence Award. He was awarded the Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award by the American Sociological Association, an honorary doctorate from LaTrobe University in Australia, and the Robin Williams Lectureship from the Eastern Sociological Society. His best-known work, The McDonaldization of Society (8th ed.), has been read by hundreds of thousands of students over two decades and translated into over a dozen languages. Ritzer is also the editor of McDonaldization: The Reader; and author of other works of critical sociology related to the McDonaldization thesis, including Enchanting a Disenchanted World, The Globalization of Nothing, Expressing America: A Critique of the Global Credit Card Society, as well as a series best-selling social theory textbooks and Globalization: A Basic Text. He is the Editor of the Encyclopedia of Social Theory (2 vols.), the Encyclopedia of Sociology (11 vols.; 2nd edition forthcoming), the Encyclopedia of Globalization (5 vols.), and is Founding Editor of the Journal of Consumer Culture. In 2016 he will publish the second edition of Essentials of Sociology with SAGE.