Customer Reviews

The McDonaldization of Society: An Investigation into the Changing Character of Contemporary Social Life (Pine Forge Press Publication)

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Ritzer analyzes the way McDonaldized systems work to increase efficiency while lowering quality, how we accept bland homogeneity for the sake of convenience while stifling diversity. An outstanding book of sociology, written with uncommon grace and humor.

Finally someone to critique this whole SUV-driving,fast-food gobbling, ATM, credit-card debting, Banana Republic we have created...

This book, for me, almost read like a comedy, especially when Ritzer describes the "iron cage of McDonaldization" - how devices that were designed to save Americans time and money - fast food windows, ATM machines - actually end up wasting more time and money. Intelligent theory underlies his arguments. I'm thinking many aspects of the Internet could be the same way...Best quote was from the teenager in Dale City, Va., who, when McDonald's came to their town, said: "Nothing this big has ever happened to Dale City."

George Ritzer's book, The McDonaldization of Society was one of the most eye opening books I have ever read. Ritzer did a fabulous job of breaking down society into a simple example of fast food chains. Refering to our society as following the idea of fast food chains- predictable, calculable, efficient, and controlling, Ritzer not only described society today, but also used clear examples of how society will adapt and be effected by McDonaldization in the future.
I was so unaware of the effects of McDonaldization on society, not only are we becoming robots in a way, but also we are starting to move so quickly in everything we do that people are forgetting to enjoy life. I loved everything about this book, from the examples Ritzer used to the knowledge it brought forth to me.
The only downfall of the book was how synical I have become since reading it. The McDonaldization of Society informed me with so much knowledge it made me take a step back and analyze the things around me. All I have to say is I think we have a scary world ahead of us. I mean seriously who want to live in a robot society?....I certainly don't .
Overall The McDonaldization of Society is a book I would recommend to read, but be prepared of what you are about to embark upon.

George Ritzer's book serves as a brilliant eye-opener into the workings of America's consumer society. It is obvious after reading his work that very few aspects of the American way of life are immune to the sickness of McDonaldization. The most astonishing aspect about this sickness is that the vast majority of those who are afflicted with it do not realize it. McDonaldization is distorted by it's proponents to appear as some sort of blessing from heaven. All such forms of manipulative propaganda are addressed in the various chapters of the book. Ritzer demonstrates genuine nobility by concluding his painfully realistic criticism with countermeasures to be taken to prevent the destruction of free thought that often happens when we live in mechanized society's like that of America. The reader below, from Colton, WA, apparently has been so heavily inflicted by McDonaldization that only the short term benefits are realized while the destructive, long term effects are beyond this person's short-sighted vision.

I've used this as required reading for a college sociology course. Students get uncomfortable with it, because it so
clearly describes the bleak and meaningless landscape being created by a society they've been told again and again they should be enjoying. Ritzer takes the "fast food" exemplar and shows us how we are all living the "fast life" -- devoid of variety and substance. This book, a social criticism, resonates neatly with a work of fiction: George Saunder's "Civilwarland in Bad Decline." Perhaps we are finally beginning to see a disturbing future much closer than the horizon???

George Ritzer's book on McDonaldisation of society makes fantastic reading, while being loaded with sociological observations. It is absolutely impossible not to stop to rethink our modern attitudes towards the easy way of life, after having read it. It is essential that we realise the extent of manipulation we undergo in our everyday life. Moreover, Ritzer's book is especially valuable to the countries of the former Communist block,where whatever is American is considered pefrect and undergoes the process of idealisation. Perhaps Ritzer's observations will save some of the readers from the life in the cage, which is created by McDonald's and its offspring.

Like most sociologists, the author puts forth a fundamentally flawed intrerpretation of markets. In this case, he says McDonald's and credit cards have succeeded by creating negative change in America. Obviously, this is nonsense from and for economic illiterates. Companies do not succeed by creating change; they can't. Companies succeed by following change. In both cases, they served needs. This really comes down to the author saying he does not like the choices people make in a free society -- which is his problem, not society's.

In the case of consumption through credit, low savings rates are presented as the consequence. Funny, other countries have credit cards and high savings rates. Inescapable conclusion: it is not the credit cards, it is taxes. They save more because tax policies offer incentives to save. We save less because we punish savings by taxing them. Economically illiterate? First two postualtes of economics: (1) People respond to incentives (+ or -); (2) People are best off when in pursuit of self-interest in free markets.