Title: Drive-Thru Dreams: A Journey Through the Heart of America’s Fast-Food Kingdom
Author: Adam Chandler
Publisher: Flatiron Books 2019
Genre: Nonfiction
Pages: 274
Rating: 4/5 stars
Reading Challenges: Library
Most any honest person can own up to harboring at least one fast-food guilty pleasure. In Drive-Thru Dreams, Adam Chandler explores the inseparable link between fast food and American life for the past century. The dark underbelly of the industry’s largest players has long been scrutinized and gutted, characterized as impersonal, greedy, corporate, and worse. But, in unexpected ways, fast food is also deeply personal and emblematic of a larger than life image of America.
With wit and nuance, Chandler reveals the complexities of this industry through heartfelt anecdotes and fascinating trivia as well as interviews with fans, executives, and workers. He traces the industry from its roots in Wichita, where White Castle became the first fast food chain in 1921 and successfully branded the hamburger as the official all-American meal, to a teenager's 2017 plea for a year’s supply of Wendy’s chicken nuggets, which united the internet to generate the most viral tweet of all time.
Random new books shelf from the library pick and I was pleasantly surprised. Every chapter details the rise of one of the well-known fast food places. We get a bit of interesting history as well as a commentary on our current world. I much preferred the history bits, but understand why the rest was included. I cam out of the book with a ton of new random facts. A pretty enjoyable book.
Next up on the TBR pile:
