Colonel Sanders And The American Dream

Attempts to biographize corporate mascot and real human being Harland Sanders better known as Colonel Sanders, the man who started what would become the restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken.

The James Beard Award–winning food writer serves up “a quirky and rewarding exploration of a ‘very real time, place, product, and person’” (TriQuarterly). Among the most recognizable corporate icons, only one was ever a real person: Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken/KFC. From a 1930s roadside café in Corbin, Kentucky, Harland Sanders launched a fried chicken business that now circles the globe, serving “finger lickin’ good” chicken to more than twelve million people every day. But to get there, he had to give up control of his company and even his own image, becoming a mere symbol to people today who don’t know that Colonel Sanders was a very real human being. This book tells his story of a dirt-poor striver with unlimited ambition who personified the American Dream. Acclaimed cultural historian Josh Ozersky defines the American Dream as being able to transcend your roots and create yourself as you see fit. Harland Sanders did exactly that. At the age of sixty-five—after failed jobs and misfortune—he packed his car with a pressure cooker and his secret blend of eleven herbs and spices and began peddling the recipe for “Colonel Sanders’ Kentucky Fried Chicken” to small-town diners. Ozersky traces the rise of Kentucky Fried Chicken from this unlikely beginning, telling the dramatic story of Sanders’ self-transformation into “The Colonel,” his truculent relationship with KFC management as their often-disregarded goodwill ambassador, and his equally turbulent afterlife as the world’s most recognizable commercial icon. “Nobody finishing this book will look at their local KFC in the same way again.” —The National

The real Harland Sanders, Commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel by Governor Ruby Lafoon in 1935, was born in Henryville, Indiana, in 1890 and died Dec. 16, 1980, at the age of 90. He lived a very unusual and extraordinary life, serving in the military, living for a time in Cuba, and working all kinds of assorted jobs ranging from street car conductor, lawyer, railroad laborer, ferry boat operator, gas station attendant, and even delivering babies, before finally discovering his talent for cooking. Many know the Colonel's success in perfecting the restaurant franchising business model came late in his life, as he was in his mid-60s when he groomed his goatee, donned his iconic white suit, and began traveling the country to sell his fried chicken recipe.Few, however, know the story of Sanders' conversion to the Christian faith, which came even later in his life. Although he had long attended church, recognized the Bible's authority, given away much of his money to charities, and even tithed regularly, none of these things unburdened Colonel Sanders from his own guilty conscience.This book is the things you may not have known about Harlan Sanders' unordinary life, success in business, and genuine faith in Christ.

In this title, unwrap the life of talented KFC creator Colonel Harland Sanders! Readers will enjoy getting the scoop on this Food Dude, beginning with his childhood in rural Indiana. Students can follow Sanders's success from his early days as family cook to his work on farms, in the US Army, on railroads, and finally at gas stations, where he perfected the Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe. Sanders's family and his retirement years as a television advertising star are also highlighted. Engaging text familiarizes readers with topics of interest including the state of KFC in the fast food world today. An entertaining sidebar, a helpful timeline, a glossary, and an index supplement the historical and color photos showcased in this inspiring biography. Aligned to Common Core standards and correlated to state standards. Checkerboard Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

“This is a book to savor, especially if you’re a fast-food fan.”—Bookpage "This fun, argumentative, and frequently surprising pop history of American fast food will thrill and educate food lovers of all speeds." —Publishers Weekly Most any honest person can own up to harboring at least one fast-food guilty pleasure. In Drive-Thru Dreams, Adam Chandler explores the inseparable link between fast food and American life for the past century. The dark underbelly of the industry’s largest players has long been scrutinized and gutted, characterized as impersonal, greedy, corporate, and worse. But, in unexpected ways, fast food is also deeply personal and emblematic of a larger than life image of America. With wit and nuance, Chandler reveals the complexities of this industry through heartfelt anecdotes and fascinating trivia as well as interviews with fans, executives, and workers. He traces the industry from its roots in Wichita, where White Castle became the first fast food chain in 1921 and successfully branded the hamburger as the official all-American meal, to a teenager's 2017 plea for a year’s supply of Wendy’s chicken nuggets, which united the internet to generate the most viral tweet of all time. Drive-Thru Dreams by Adam Chandler tells an intimate and contemporary story of America—its humble beginning, its innovations and failures, its international charisma, and its regional identities—through its beloved roadside fare.

A one man show about one of the most recognized faces in the world...Colonel Harland Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken!!! Although he is most well-known for the eleven herbs and spices that made Kentucky Fried Chicken famous world-wide, Harland "Colonel" Sanders' life was about much more than fried chicken. The man whose face became synonymous with "finger-lickin' good" chicken used hard work and perseverance - not to mention a little luck along the way - to become recognized as Kentucky's most famous citizen. Armed with only a sixth-grade education, Sanders worked a number of jobs over the years - an army mule tender, railroad worker, tire salesman, and farmhand. In 1930, he moved to Corbin and opened a lunchroom behind a service station that had room for six people sitting at one table. His restaurant grew rapidly, and in a short time, he was operating Sanders' Cafe, which seated 142 patrons. His customers made fried chicken the most popular item on the menu. He might have worked in that cafe for the rest of his life if it weren't for the building of Interstate 75, forcing him to sell his place at auction. Sanders was now in his mid-sixties, an age when most people take the opportunity to retire. He decided to go out on the road, traveling the country showing restaurants how to make Colonel Sanders' Kentucky Fried Chicken. By 1963, there were more than 600 outlets selling his chicken.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the New York Times bestselling author of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and one of the world’s greatest storytellers comes "an insistently metaphysical mind-bender” (The New Yorker) about a teenager on the run and an aging simpleton. Now with a new introduction by the author. Here we meet 15-year-old runaway Kafka Tamura and the elderly Nakata, who is drawn to Kafka for reasons that he cannot fathom. As their paths converge, acclaimed author Haruki Murakami enfolds readers in a world where cats talk, fish fall from the sky, and spirits slip out of their bodies to make love or commit murder, in what is a truly remarkable journey. “As powerful as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.... Reading Murakami ... is a striking experience in consciousness expansion.” —The Chicago Tribune