The People's Car: A Global History of the Volkswagen Beetle
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.73 (799 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0674050916 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 416 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-04-30 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Five Stars A great book that details the development of "the people's car." Nice addition to my Volkswagen library.. Five Stars Amazon Customer This book clearly explains the VW history. Disappointing Luigi Facotti 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 relative
(Emily S. A compelling read. Rieger shows this to informative and illuminating effect. (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 journey from its Third Reich conception to lovable international representation of a renewed Germany is sure to interest die-hard Beetle lovers as well as automobile history buffs. (Maria Bagshaw Library Journal (starred review) 2013-07-01)The People's Car by Bernhard Rieger chronicles t
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. Decades later, that automobile-the Volkswagen Beetle-was one of the most beloved in the world. Beyond its quality and low cost, the Beetle's success hinged on its uncanny ability to capture the imaginations of people across nations and cultures. In the United States, it was embraced in the suburbs, and then prized by the hippie counterculture as an antidote to suburban conformity. 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 motorizat
Bernhard Rieger teaches modern and contemporary history at University College London.