Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age (The Road and American Culture)

About this book

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 McDonalds. 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.