Boom Town: How Wal-Mart Transformed an All-American Town Into an International Community

In 1950, Sam Walton, founder of the Wal-Mart empire, arrived in the Bible Belt town of Bentonville, Arkansas, and discovered that the nondescript Ozarks backwater--population 2,900 white Christians--suited him just fine. Today, six decades later, Walton’s legacy has left its mark. The Bentonville area is headquarters to not only Wal-Mart but also Tyson Foods and J. B. Hunt. The town’s population has grown to around 30,000, and the region is now home to blacks, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Marshall …