I didn't want to remain a hick from the mountains... In my cultural naivete I saw McDonald's as a place somehow where modern culture capital could be dispensed. Keeping these memories in mind as years later I monitored scores of conversations about the Golden Arches in the late 1990s, it became apparent that McDonald's is still considered a marker of modern identity. In addition to being at the center of the fast-food industry, McDonald's seems to have become something of a publishing phenomenon. Hard on the heels of Jennifer Talwar's Fast Food, Fast Track and Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal comes this offering from Kincheloe (education, Brooklyn Coll.; coeditor, Kinderculture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood). While Talwar considered the local, positive aspects of employment at McDonald's for ambitious immigrants, Kincheloe returns to the Evil Empire theme: McDonald's is a poor but extremely powerful symbol of American culture abroad. This is, of course, not a new argument, and Talwar's unpolished writing style and tendency toward broad generalizations (McDonald's seems to be a catchall for everything that is bad about America) are sophomoric. The only whopper here is the price. Not recommended. Ellen D. Gilbert, Princeton, NJ Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. Used Book in Good Condition