Cultural historian Ozersky (food editor/online, New York magazine) examines the hamburger--the bellwether, and later stalwart, of the fast-food establishment in America--as a cultural signpost for American cultural and social values. He includes meaty research on the personalities (e.g., Ray Kroc, Dave Thomas) and the corporations (e.g., McDonald's, White Castle, Big Boy) that not only perfected the delivery of the assembly-line sandwich to the masses but also profited from their ability to connect to the power of the individuality, ingenuity, and ambition inherent in the American dream, even as the shape of that dream has shifted throughout the 20th century to today--where McDonaldization and gourmet Kobe beef burgers coexist. Compelling reading, this clearly written book will attract a wide range of readers, from those with an academic interest in popular culture, U.S. history, sociology, or company histories to those generally interested in the American sociocultural landscape and the origins of McDonald's. Recommended for academic and public libraries.--Courtney Greene, DePaul Univ. Lib., Chicago (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

For decades America took its beloved ground-beef-patty sandwich pretty much for granted, the only controversy concerning whether it should have a slice of cheese melted atop the meat. Thanks to the ubiquity granted it by America's mobile culture, the hamburger's hegemony is now threatened on both nutritional and economic fronts. Ozersky traces the well-documented history of the hamburger, debunking many of the myths surrounding its nineteenth-century origins. He gives special attention to the origins of the White Castle chain of burger drive-ins, showing how it anticipated many of the innovations most people ascribe to McDonald's. Ozersky finds the hard-driving Ray Kroc, author of McDonald's success, a contradictory character, at once valuing conformity yet gathering around himself creative minds to ensure McDonald's marketplace dominance. Ozersky's analysis of Burger King's and Wendy's differing strategies to make their burgers somehow distinctive within the American fast-food market makes for great reading.--Knoblauch, Mark Copyright 2008 Booklist

This meaty account of the cultural, social, and economic history of the hamburger serves its food facts with all the condiments. Ozersky, a cultural historian, food authority, and writer, assembles material from many sources, pats it neatly into a single serving, and grills to perfection. Insights into art and architecture, economics, and sociology are ground together in this well-done essay on a uniquely American food phenomenon. The hamburger epitomizes American invention, industry, and marketing. Ozersky's prose is lean. He writes that the hamburger is larger than gastronomy: it is politics. His juicy essay recounts the personalities and passions that brought the hamburger into being, and he bites into some of the biological realities of the hamburger as well. Burgers are big, but they have a whopper of an effect on the environment. This reviewer's beef with burgers is their contribution to rain forest destruction, their outrageous water consumption, and the belching clouds of greenhouse gases that they indirectly produce. These fries aside, this book is a satisfying mouthful. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers/libraries. S. Hammer Boston University