Hamburger: A Global History »

Andrew F. Smith is a hamburger aficionado who teaches culinary history at the New School in New York.  He is also the author of The Encyclopedia of Junk Food and Fast Food and edited The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink.

McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc once said, “It requires a certain kind of mind to see beauty in a hamburger bun.” The hamburger has been a staple of American culture for the last century, both a source of gluttonous joy and a recurrent obstacle to healthy eating. Now the full beauty of the burger in all its forms is explored in Hamburger, a debut title in Reaktion Books’ new Edible series.

Andrew F. Smith traces the trajectory of hamburger history, from its humble beginnings as a nineteenth-century street food sold by American vendors, from which it soon spread to the menus of diners and restaurants. The sandwich came into its own with the 1921 opening of the first hamburger chain, White Castle, and subsequent successful food chains such as McDonald’s and Wendy’s ensured the burger’s success in the United States and around the world. The hamburger irrevocably changed American life, Smith argues, as the sandwich propelled the rise of fast food over home-cooked meals in Americans’ eating habits. At the same time, burgers were making inroads in American culture, as well as becoming a rich symbol in paintings, television, and movies. Smith also discusses the darker nutritional, economic, and cultural conflicts raised by the hamburger, such as the “McDonaldization” of international cultures.

A juicy and richly illustrated read, Hamburger will stimulate the taste buds of carnivores the world over.

The Chronicle Review

"In slim formats--a lot more than a soupcon, far less than a magnum--each Edible title will spotlight a food or drink in global context. The primary intent, says the series editor, Andrew F. Smith, is to reach the 'thinking public' with matieral drawn and translated from scholarly work. . . . Smith says he looks at food writing 'as a tool to talk about other things.' For his own Edible book, Hamburger: A Global History, a central 'other thing' is globalization, even as he starts very locally."--Nina C. Ayoub, The Chronicle Review

Introduction 7

1 Humble Hamburger Beginnings 11

2 The Hamburger Chain 25

3 The McDonald's Machine 42

4 McDonald Clones 64

5 The Hamburger Experience 76

6 The Global Burger 87

7 Hamburgers Today and Tomorrow 111

Recipes 125

Select Bibliography 138

Websites and Associations 140

Photo Acknowledgements 144

Index 145