“Adams provides more fascinating details and insights in this compact
monograph than most readers can digest in one reading … Ultimately, Burger
is a work of advocacy as well as literature and cultural analysis.” – New
Orleans Review
“Burger is a small book with a big punch … Adams approaches her topic as an
animal rights advocate as well as a feminist. She reminds us what the
'everyday object' of a hamburger really is: 'The burger - minced, macerated,
ground - is the renamed, reshaped food product furthest away from the
animal.' In this way, taking into account the lives of cows, as well as
women, Adams convincingly explores the 'violence at the heart of the
hamburger.'” – NPR: 13.7 Cosmos and Culture
“It's tempting to say that Burger is a literary meal that fills the reader's
need, but that's the essence of Adams' quick, concise, rich exploration of
the role this meat (or meatless) patty has played in our lives. No matter
our predilections or the political implications that often go with what we
choose to consume, it's important to understand all sides of the matter …
The Object Lessons series … continues to provide great food for thought. The
burger … [is] an adaptable and rich subject that Adams handles with energy,
expertise, and good humor.” – PopMatters
“Burger offers a thoughtful homage to the unsustainable modernist solution
to protein delivery. Adams does not lose sight of the cultural importance of
the burger's traditional glory, but she does offer an adventurous reckoning
with its impact on the planet. As the climate changes, what will take the
place of ground beef in our hearts and minds? Among other things, books like
this.” – James Hamblin, MD, senior editor at The Atlantic and the author of
If Our Bodies Could Talk: A Guide to Operating and Maintaining a Human Body
“Carol J. Adams has written a penetrating meditation on the bronze monument
of all American food icons, the burger. Keenly observed, richly annotated,
and sometimes fierce, this book examines the identity of the hamburger,
along the way unraveling a fascinating tangle of American capitalism,
environmental policy, and cultural assimilation-nothing less than the messy,
scratch-and-kick pursuit of collective American hungers. Adams shows how
food is never just food; it always has a beating symbolic heart.” – Amy
Thielen, chef, TV cook, and author of The New Midwestern Table and Give a
Girl a Knife
Carol J. Adams is the author of numerous books, including The Sexual Politics of Meat, Neither Man nor Beast: Feminism and the Defense of Animals and The Pornography of Meat. She is the co-editor of several pathbreaking anthologies, including most recently Ecofeminism: Feminist Intersections with Other Animals and the Earth (with Lori Gruen).
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