Eric Schlosser Speaks on "To Be an American"

Acclaimed author and journalist Eric Schlosser will give a free talk on Thursday, March 22 at 4 p.m. in the Auburn University Hotel and Conference Center auditorium. His talk, “To Be an American,” addresses the historical, cultural and social implications of our nation’s immigrant identity.

As a melting-pot nation, the United States has experienced both the vigor and the tension that comes from making one of many. Schlosser’s wide-ranging perspective addresses the roots of American identity and the impulse that helped make the nation a destination for those in search of economic, cultural and religious freedom. 

Schlosser’s first book, Fast Food Nation, published in 2001, helped start a revolution in how Americans think about what they eat. In 2011 it was named one of Time magazine’s 100 all-time best nonfiction books and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for two years. His second book, Reefer Madness (2003), looked at America’s thriving underground economy and was also a New York Times bestseller.

Schlosser served as an executive producer and co-wrote the feature film Fast Food Nation (2006), directed by Richard Linklater. He was a co-producer of the award-winning documentary, Food, Inc., directed by Robert Kenner, and served as executive producer of There Will Be Blood (2008), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Two of Schlosser’s plays have been produced in London: Americans (2003) at the Arcola Theatre and We the People (2007) at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

As an investigative journalist, Schlosser has made a career of going outside the mainstream media to give a voice to people not always widely heard. He’s followed the harvest with migrant farm workers in California, spent time with meatpacking workers in Texas and Colorado and gone on duty with the New York Police Department Bomb Squad. 

Schlosser’s talk is sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts’ Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities, Department of Communication & Journalism and Community and Civic Engagement Initiative, as well as the Auburn University College of Agriculture.