Product Description

Eating on the run has a long history in America, but it was the automobile that created a whole new category of dining: "fast food." In the final volume of their "Gas, Food, Lodging" trilogy, John Jakle and Keith Sculle contemplate the origins, architecture, and commercial growth of fast food restaurants from White Castle to McDonald's. Illustrated with 217 maps, postcards, photographs and drawings, "Fast Food" makes clear that the story of these unpretentious restaurants is the story of modern American culture. The first roadside eateries popularized once-unfamiliar foods - hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, milkshakes, burritos - that are now basic to the American diet. By the 1950s, drive-ins and diners had become icons of rebellion where teenagers sought freedom from adult authority. Like the gas station and the motel, the roadside restaurant is an essential part of the modern American landscape - where intentional sameness of design "welcomes" every interstate driver.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1692176 in Books
• Published on: 2002-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

From the Publisher
"A meticulously detailed study of the origins and growth of fast-food chains in the 20th century."—Karal Ann Marling, New York Times Book Review

"Jakle and Sculle don't miss a trick in their fascinating in-depth tour of American eateries . . . Loaded with thoughtful analysis of social trends, the book tracks fast food from the emergence of the soda fountain in 1839 at a Philadelphia perfume shop (who knew?) to the modern-day ice cream wars pitting Haagen-Dazs against Ben & Jerry's."—Entertainment Weekly

"Thorough, compendious, and businesslike, it . . . repays perseverance in the richness and suggestiveness of its prodigal tales."—Eugen Weber, Times Literary Supplement

About the Author
John A. Jakle is a professor of geography and landscape architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Keith A. Sculle is an adjunct professor of history at the University of Illinois at Springfield and head of research and education at the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.