Hamburgers and Americanism We Often

Hamburgers and Americanism

We often hear the old colloquialism, "as American as Apple Pie," but we never hear the phrase "as American as the Hamburger," yet it may be more appropriate than one would think. There are few other icons that are more connected to the growth of the American dream, its culture and the iconography of this nation than the hamburger sandwich, known today simply as the burger. The history of the Hamburger though it goes back farther than its fast food roots and phenomenal success in the U.S. is a significant success marker for U.S. progress in social, economic and infrastructural endeavors. Though it may seem comical there is an actual controversy regarding the invention of this meal that so many enjoy on a daily basis, often to the chagrin of their waistlines. The hamburger, is thought to have its roots in Mongolia, where steak tartar became a staple of the diet, and additionally in Hamburg Germany there was said to be a creation that everyone else called a hamburger steak which was popular and closer to the American version than the steak tartar. Though in a documentary look at the history of proletariat food written by John t. Edge called Hamburger & Fries, (Hamburger today web site: (http://www.ahamburgertoday.com/archives/2005/08/the_history_of.php)"The history of proletarian dishes like hamburgers is rarely explained by a linear progression of events." (John T. Edge quoted on Hamburger today website), his point being that the hamburger is made from ingredients and presented in such a way that the purpose is relatively clear, a fast, portable and inexpensive way to feed a working class person, likely with little time to eat and even less money to buy food.

Studying the hamburger's true origin has proven difficult, as its popularity growth has been so expansive that the idea's origin likely got thrown out with the paper first used to wrap it for "take out." As the Hamburger today website points out there are three prevailing claims to the invention of the hamburger, and as it was not a coveted offering and only today are people seeking to ground it in tradition, even in the age of exponential patent growth it does not have a documented history. "The number of U.S. patents since 1790 totals more than 6.5 million." ("INVENTIVE LAND; See Early" 2003, D04) the hamburger was an old idea, that became transformed by American culture and in turn transformed American culture and economy right back, to its working class roots.

Whatever the specifics of its very first incarnation, it was clearly something that was ready to happen, and when it did, it did so in a great popular explosion that propelled in into every corner of the land. Whether at home or in a variety of public places, the burger was from the start widely available, cheap, easy to prepare, and even easier to consume. In the 1920s White castle opened the first burger chain: a sack of twenty burgers could be had for one dollar. Burger emporia burgeoned throughout the landscape, and in the forties and fifties, when all America was on wheels, the drive through chains emerged, with McDonalds and Big Boy and Burger King delivering what was by this time and entrenched and well loved meal through the window of one's car. (Rosin, 1994: 181)

Those agents that helped transform the environment of the nation, during westward expansion and during the exponential expansion of the automobile industry. "In pre-war 1910 there were fewer than a half-million automobiles in the United States. By 1920 this had risen more than sixteen-fold to 8. 1 million as the 'Tin Lizzie' started to come of age." (Cudahy 1990, 152) You may ask what the automobile has to do with the Hamburger but in truth it isn't a difficult leap as convenience food has become and American traditions strongly grounded in the independence of the personal vehicle of transportation and the infrastructure that was needed to support it and not surprisingly the hamburger was one of the first if not the first items on the menu at drive by, drive in and other forms of fast food restaurants began to rule the roadside and the economy in many ways. The prolific and exponential growth of the automobile led to a decrease in the prices, which in turn led to the ability of the proletariat to obtain personal vehicles and contribute to the market expansion of the fast food restaurant, hence the growth in popularity of the hamburger. "Communities of all types also were affected by the growth of roadside business establishments that catered to the automobile. The two most important generic categories in this regard are facilities that provide fuel (the gas/filling / service station) and food (roadside/fast-food restaurants)." (Berger 2001, 193)

There is even a great deal of evidence that the hamburger and the fast food industry have transformed marketing and even the architecture of the U.S. through transforming the ease of use and creating iconography that represents the image of America all over the world, but particularly American roads.

More specific in terms of food, but not necessarily of architecture, is Jeffrey Tennyson's Hamburger Heaven: The Illustrated History of the Hamburger, which, among other things, treats the design of hamburger restaurants and fast-food chains in a chapter entitled "Architecture and Signage." broader perspective is offered in John F. Mariani's America Eats Out, wherein the author argues that restaurant architecture in general has evolved into an advertising device by which customers are attracted to a particular establishment (Berger 2001, 210)

The hamburger is a recognized icon in the national and international arenas as a truly American design, indicative of American growth and prosperity, and regardless of truth the ideology of the American dream. In an international sense the McDonalds corporation is a recognized trademark restaurant that operates in more than 100 nations and reflects American ingenuity and entrepreneurship to its most extreme. "James Cantalupo, President of McDonald's International, claims that the goal of McDonald's is to 'become as much a part of the local culture as possible.'" (Watson 1997, 12)

This local culture, claim may be the case but people on the street know the origin and history of McDonalds and the value of its most prized and frequently ordered menu item, the Hamburger.

A popular culture frequently measures its successes either in exquisitely refined statistics... Or in gross numbers (the billionth hamburger produced by McDonald's was celebrated by its presentation to Art Linkletter, the host of a popular American television program, in 1963)." (Betts 2004, 1)