Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser [201]
The Illustrated History of Las Vegas (Edison, N.J.: Chartwell Books, 1997), by Bill Yenne, conveys how the city has been radically transformed in recent years. The Players: The Men Who Made Las Vegas (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1997), edited by Jack Sheehan, provides a good deal of insight into the unique culture that emerged there. Timothy O’Brien’s Bad Bet: The Inside Story of the Glamour, Glitz, and Danger of America’s Gambling Industry (New York: Times Business, 1998) explains precisely how the casinos make their money.
Much of my information on obesity comes from articles in Science, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the New England Journal of Medicine. The nutritionist Jane Kirby placed many of the claims and counterclaims about diet into a calm and reasonable perspective for me. Greg Critser’s “Let Them Eat Fat: The Heavy Truths about American Obesity,” Harper’s, March 2000, is a provocative essay on fast food and the poor.
My account of the McLibel trial is based on interviews with the two principals, Helen Steel and Dave Morris, and on the transcripts of the trial (which were available, along with other interesting material, at the anti-McDonald’s Web site www. mcspotlight.org). Franny Armstrong — the director of an excellent documentary, McLibel: Two Worlds Collide — was extremely helpful. John Vidal’s book, McLibel, tells the whole, extraordinary story of the trial. The essays collected in Golden Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1997), edited by James L. Watson, reveal some of the unpredictable ways in which fast food is now being embraced by other cultures.
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226 the city’s population roughly tripled: See Weiss, Plauen: Postkarten, pp. 3–4.
the most millionaires… and the most suicides: Interview with Thomas Küttler. Also cited in Connelly, “Moment of Revolution.”
the highest unemployment rate: In 1933 the unemployment rate in Plauen was 15.6 percent, the highest in Germany. Cited in Plauen 1933–1945, p. 55.
227 More bombs were dropped on Plauen: About 63.2 tons of explosives were dropped on each square kilometer of Dresden; about 185.4 tons per square kilometer struck Plauen. Cited in Laser et al., Plauen 1944/1945, p. 14.
about 75 percent of Plauen lay in ruins: Küttler interview.
lost one-third of its prewar population: Cited in Weiss, Plauen: Postkarten, p. 4.
an “unusually low quality of life”: Connelly, “Plauen: Moment of Revolution.”
228 “We want freedom”: Küttler interview.
229 “McDonald’s and similar abnormal garbage-makers”: Quoted in “Ban the ‘Big Mac’ from East Germany, Parliamentarian Demands,” Reuters, July 26, 1990.
“global realization”: Quoted in “Blue Chip Blues,” Economist, September 26, 1998.
Within the next decade: See “Some Things Old, Some Things New,” Franchising World, November–December 1999.
earns the majority of its profits: See “The McDonald’s Corporation 1999 Annual Report”; Charlene C. Price, “The U.S. Foodservice Industry Looks Abroad,” USDA Food Review, May–August 1996.
the most widely recognized brand in the world: See “McDonald’s wins top spot in global brand ratings,” Brand Strategy, November 22, 1996.
“McWorld”: See Benjamin R. Barber, “Jihad vs. McWorld,” Atlantic Monthly, March 1992.
when McDonald’s opened its first restaurant in Turkey: See Gulsun Bilgen-Konuray, “Turkey — Franchising Market,” Industry Sector Analysis, U.S. Foreign and Commercial Service, U.S. State Department, August 24, 1999.
230 “Americana and the promise of modernization”: Watson, Golden Arches East, p. 41.
earning $200,000 in a single week during Ramadan: Cited in Bill McDowall, “The Global Market Challenge,” Restaurants & Institutions, November 1, 1994.