Trams or Tailfins? – Public and Private Prosperity in Postwar West Germany and the United States - Hardcover

Logemann, Jan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226491498 ISBN 13: 9780226491493

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2013

Synopsis

In the years that followed World War II, both the United States and the newly formed West German republic had an opportunity to remake their economies. Since then, much has been made of the supposed "Americanization" of European consumer societies - in Germany and elsewhere. Arguing against these foggy notions, Jan L. Logemann takes a comparative look at the development of postwar mass consumption in West Germany and the United States and the emergence of discrete consumer modernities. In "Trams or Tailfins?", Logemann explains how the decisions made at this crucial time helped to define both of these economic superpowers in the second half of the twentieth century. While Americans splurged on private cars and bought goods on credit in suburban shopping malls, Germans rebuilt public transit and developed pedestrian shopping streets in their city centers - choices that continue to shape the quality and character of life decades later. Outlining the abundant differences in the structures of consumer society, consumer habits, and the role of public consumption in these countries, Logemann reveals the many subtle ways that the spheres of government, society, and physical space define how we live.

About this title

About the Author

Jan L. Logemann is the editor of The Development of Consumer Credit in Global Perspective. A research fellow at the German Historical Institute in Washington, DC, he is also the director of their Transatlantic Perspectives project.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226491498
• ISBN 13: 9780226491493
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352