The People's Car: A Global History of the Volkswagen Beetle
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.71 (885 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0674050916 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 416 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-10-18 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
(Hedwig Richter Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 2013-05-05)The story of the Volkswagen Beetle is complex, interesting, international, unlikely, and utterly fascinating. But what is most intriguing is how a consumer commodity became an icon that, over decades, represented something different for a variety of countries and generations. (Paul Hockenos The National 2013-05-09)From its original design by Ferdinand Porsche, commissioned by Hitler in the 1930s, to its role as a symbol of a new, post-World War II Germany, the Beetle became second only to Ford's Model T as a car for the masses and, eventually, a feature of the emergence of the middle classThis overview of the car's j
Decades later, that automobile-the Volkswagen Beetle-was one of the most beloved in the world. As its popularity waned in the First World, the Beetle crawled across Mexico and Latin America, where it symbolized a sturdy toughness necessary to thrive amid economic instability. In West Germany, it came to stand for the postwar "economic miracle" and helped propel Europe into the age of mass motorization. The Beetle's improbable story as a failed prestige project of the Third Reich which became a world-renowned brand illuminates the multiple origins, creative adaptations, and persisting inequalities that characterized twentieth-century globalization.. Bernhard Rieger examines culture and technology, politics and economics, and industrial design and advertising genius to reveal how a car commissioned by Hitler and designed by Ferdinand Porsche became an exceptional global commodity on a par with Coca-Cola. In the United States, it was embraced in the suburbs, and then prized by the hippie counterculture as an antidote to suburban conformity. At the Berlin Auto Show in 1938, Adolf Hitler presented the prototype for a small, oddly shaped, inexpensive family car that all good Aryans could enjoy. B
Five Stars A great book that details the development of "the people's car." Nice addition to my Volkswagen library.. Five Stars This book clearly explains the VW history. Luigi Facotti said Disappointing. To many, the VW Beetle is a highly familiar cultural icon that represents the best of Californian flower power with all its associations of personal freedom - a fun automobile. If not at the anthropomorphic level of Disney's Herbie, the icon is certainly one that has good memories for many in Germany, the US, Mexico, Africa and South America as evidenced most recently by the smiles in the Super Bowl "Bug Punch" advert. The Beetle, a relatively cheap and very reliable (if not the most luxurious) form of transportation transcended the c
. Bernhard Rieger teaches modern and contemporary history at University College London