In the mid-twentieth century, the hamburger emerged as a symbol of American democracy and prosperity. As fast food became dominant on the American landscape, the hamburger provided to millions of people an inexpensive serving of meat. To consume a hamburger was, in a sense, to fulfill the promise of democracy, and to enact one's Americanness.

The hamburger or "burger," minimally defined as a cooked ground beef patty between two pieces of bread, was born in America sometime around 1890. Loosely based on the ground-beef steak popular in the German town of Hamburg, the hamburger gained national repute at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. In the 1920s the White Castle chain of restaurants helped popularize the hamburger, which was beginning to become a common food in many regions. In the 1930s and 1940s, the Great Depression and World War II severely impacted the ability of most Americans to purchase meat...