Bug: The Strange Mutations of the World's Most Famous Car - Hardcover

Patton, Phil

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743202422 ISBN 13: 9780743202428

Publisher: Simon & Schuster International, 2003

Synopsis

The in-depth history of a mass produced, affordable car that began in 1930's Germany and took over the world to became an icon The BUG story is of Nazi propaganda, brilliant innovations in automotive design, and of its strange and startling transformations into cultural icons as varied as Ken Kesey's magic bus, 'Herbie' in Disney's The Love Bug, and Charlie Manson's dune buggy...The Volkswagen was a project dear to Adolph Hitler's heart, and in his first public appearance as Chancellor, he promised a 'real car for the German people', a mass-produced car that would be as affordable as a motorcycle. But after the war, the Bug moved beyond Germany with a revolutionary advertising campaign and a huge potential market, becoming a phenomenal success. Phil Patton tells the fascinating story of how the Bug was designed and developed in the 1930s by the legendary German automotive designer, Ferdinand Porsche, and how it became an icon, wholly removed from its Nazi past. And in 1998, executives from Germany unveiled the New Beetle, whose only assembly plant is in Mexico. Patton shows how a whole new strategy was devised for the company - selling cars is show business.

About this title

Review:

"Kirkus Reviews" A peppy, perspicacious cultural history of the Volkswagen...With brio and dash, Patton (Dreamland, 1998, etc.) charts the long strange trip of the little bug that became a grand cultural totem.

About the Author:

Phil Patton is the author of DREAMLAND: TRAVELS INSIDE THE SECRET WORLD OF ROSWELL and AREA 51 (Villard), and is a regular writer for the New York Times 'Public Eye' and 'Design Notebook' columns. He is a contributing editor at Esquire, Wired, and ID, and a consulting curator of The Museum of Modern Art's exhibition, 'Different Roads: Automobiles for the New Century'.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster International
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0743202422
• ISBN 13: 9780743202428
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256