Sign of the Burger : McDonald's and the Culture of Control

Since the first McDonald's popped up in the southern California landscape in the early 1950s looking more like a TV set than a restaurant, the franchise has spread into an enormous empire. But McDonald's is much more than a purveyor of burgers and fries: it is the quintessential late-twentieth-century institution -- a social hologram that contains within it the entire constellation of competing social, economic, and epistemological tendencies. In The Sign of the Burger: McDonald's and the Culture of Control, Joe Kincheloe examines Ray Kroc's empire to see what it tells us about American history and politics. The book, a series of ethnographic vignettes organized around historical material, theoretical discussions, and social criticism, reveals how the ordinary McDonald's hamburger, cleverly marketed, has become a universally accepted symbol of American values.Kincheloe, Joe L. is the author of 'Sign of the Burger : McDonald's and the Culture of Control', published 1999 under ISBN 9780813329833 and ISBN 0813329833.