An irreverent, hard-hitting examination of the worlds largest-and most reviled-corporation, which reveals that while Wal-Marts dominance may be providing consumers with cheap goods and plentiful jobs, it may also be breeding a culture of discontent.It employs one of every 115 American workers. If it were a nation-state, it would be one of the worlds top twenty economies An irreverent, hard-hitting examination of the worlds largest-and most reviled-corporation, which reveals that while Wal-Marts dominance may be providing consumers with cheap goods and plentiful jobs, it may also be breeding a culture of discontent.It employs one of every 115 American workers. If it were a nation-state, it would be one of the worlds top twenty economies. With yearly sales of nearly $260 billion and an average way of $8 an hour, Wal-Mart represents an unprecedented-and perhaps unstoppable-force in capitalism. And there have been few corporations that have evoked the same levels of reverence and ire. The United States of Wal-Mart is a hard-hitting examination of how Sam Waltons empire has infiltrated not just the geography of America but also its consciousness. Peeling away layers of propaganda and politics, investigative journalist John Dicker reveals an American (and, increasingly, a global) story that has no clear-cut villains or heroes-one that could be the confused, complicated story of America itself. Pitched battles between economic progress and quality of life, between the preservation of regional identity and national homogeneity, and between low prices and the dignity of the American worker are beginning to coalesce into an all-out war to define our modern era. And, Dicker argues, Wal-Mart is winning. Revealing that the companys business practices have been shaping American culture, including the nations social, political, and industrial policy, The United States of Wal-Mart provides fresh insight into a controversy that isnt going away.