LEADER 03910cam a22004698a 4500001 231348 005 20240621195515.0 008 130403s2013 mau b 001 0 eng 010 2012029928 016 7 016275062 |2Uk 020 9780674050914 |qalkaline paper 020 0674050916 |qalkaline paper 029 1 AU@ |b000050025088 035 (OCoLC)ocn810273534 035 (OCoLC)810273534 035 231348 042 pcc 049 LHMA 040 PSt/DLC |beng |erda |cUPM |dDLC |dOCLCO |dYDXCP |dBTCTA |dBDX |dUKMGB |dIH7 |dBWX |dSGB |dLHM 050 00 TL215.V6 |bR54 2013 082 00 629.222/2 |223 100 1 Rieger, Bernhard, |d1967- 245 14 The people's car : |ba global history of the Volkswagen Beetle / |cBernhard Rieger. 246 30 Global history of the Volkswagen Beetle 264 1 Cambridge, Mass. : |bHarvard University Press, |c2013. 263 1304 300 406 pages : |billustrations ; |c22 cm 336 text |btxt |2rdacontent 337 unmediated |bn |2rdamedia 338 volume |bnc |2rdacarrier 520 "The People's Car is a transnational cultural history tracing the Beetle from its origins in Nazi Germany to its role in the postwar West German "economic miracle" to its popularity in midcentury Europe and the U.S., second career in Mexico and Latin America, and revival in the late 1990s"--Provided by publisher. 504 Includes bibliographical references and index. 505 0 Prologue: some shapes are hard to improve on -- Before the "people's car" -- A symbol of the national socialist people's community? -- "We should make no demands" -- Icon of the early federal republic -- An export hit -- "The Beetle is dead -- long live the Beetle" -- "I have a vochito in my heart" -- Of Beetles old and new -- Epilogue: the Volkswagen Beetle as a global icon. 520 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. Decades later, that automobile -- the Volkswagen Beetle -- was one of the most beloved in the world. 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. 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 West Germany, it came to stand for the postwar "economic miracle" and helped propel Europe into the age of mass motorization. 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. Drawing from a wealth of sources in multiple languages, The People's Car presents an international cast of characters -- executives and engineers, journalists and advertisers, assembly line workers and car collectors, and everyday drivers -- who made the Beetle into a global icon. 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. - Publisher. 591 Record updated by Marcive processing 21 June 2024 650 0 Volkswagen Beetle automobile |xHistory. 938 YBP Library Services |bYANK |n9783956 938 Baker and Taylor |bBTCP |nBK0012253794 938 Brodart |bBROD |n103887431 938 Blackwell Book Service |bBBUS |n9783956 994 C0 |bLHM 852 0 |bstacks |hTL215.V6 |iR54 2013