Boom Town
How Wal-Mart Transformed an All-American Town Into an International Community
-
- $9.99
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
Investigating the personal stories behind the headquarters of the Wal-Mart empire, this examination focuses on the growth of Bentonville, Arkansas—a microcosm of America's social, political, and cultural shift. Numerous personalities are interviewed, including a multimillionaire Palestinian refugee who arrived penniless and is now dedicated to building a synagogue, a Mexican mother of three who was fired after injuring herself on the job, a black executive hired to diversify Wal-Mart whose arrival coincided with a KKK rally, and a Hindu father concerned about interracial dating. In documenting these citizens' stories, this account reveals the challenges and issues facing those who compose this and other "boom towns"—where demographics, the economy, and immigration and migration patterns are continually in flux. In shedding light on these important and timely anecdotes of America's changing rural and suburban landscape, this exploration provides an entertaining and intimate chronicle of the different ethnicities, races, and religions as well as their ongoing struggles to adapt. Emerging as subtle sociology combined with drama and humanity, this overview illustrates the imperceptible and occasionally unpredictable movements that affect the nonmetropolitan environment of the United States.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
According to Rosen (Popcorn Venus), Sam Walton's retail empire currently facing criticism for inadequate wages, sexual discrimination, predatory pricing and pernicious environmental and overseas practices is "the largest and most controversial U.S. corporation." Bethany Moreton's recent and enlightening To Serve God and Wal-Mart notes that Wal-Mart plays a conspicuous role in recent transformations in American business, consumer and labor practices and their global cultural consequences. Rosen agrees, but she has come to praise, not bury, the international giant, and her far too circumscribed profile focusing on the hometown headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., and the surrounding "boom" region it influences emphasizes Wal-Mart's character as a generous, "surprisingly good neighbor" and engine of multiculturalism, incorporating Hindus, Muslims, Jews, African-Americans, Marshall Islanders and Latinos into "white-bread" Bible Belt communities. Rosen glosses over employee complaints, lawsuits and informed critiques of Wal-Mart's operation and conservative brand of Christian entrepreneurialism with the savvy of a public relations pro in this laudatory and utterly unbalanced portrait.
