History Corner: Bug: The Strange Mutations of the Worlds Most Famous Automobile by Phil Patton

Another historical book review from hubby- this time it's car related!

Synopsis: What do Ferdinand Porsche, Adolf Hitler, Henry Ford, and Walt Disney have in common? They've all played a pivotal role in the development of the most produced and best known car of all time: the Volkswagen Beetle. Cultural chronicler Phil Patton brilliantly traces this distinctive car's evolution and its impact beyond the highway and around the world in BUG. Patton attests that "the Bug's mental life far exceeds its metal one. The Bug stands as proof that images and ideas swing through culture as if by their own power, evolving, adapting to new environments, latching on to new human champions, infecting new human beings with enthusiasm." 

Since 1941, more than 22 million VW Beetles have been built. Originating in Germany, Bugs have been manufactured in Brazil, Australia, andNigeria, and driven with a passion across the United States. Today, the largest plant is far from the Bug's homeland-in Puebla, Mexico. The New Beetle is a high-tech, high-style homage to the original and was unveiled in 1998. About a hundred miles from the factory, Mexico Cityis infested with the "old" Bug-nearly two million of the species. In spite of their surface similarities-the signature shape and colors, proudly exaggerated in the 1998 incarnation-the old and the new Beetles are worlds apart, mechanically and culturally.

In captivating detail, BUG follows every turn and twist on the road from conception to icon. From Berlin to Detroit, from Madison Avenue toHollywood, Phil Patton illuminates how economic and political forces shaped the Beetle-and how the Beetle made its mark on history. Among many remarkable chapters in the car's biography:

• How Hitler conceived the Beetle as a reliable and affordable "real car" for the German people, how Porsche made the Fuhrer's vision of streamlined function a working reality, and how the Nazis used the revolutionary car as a tool for propaganda.
• How, in the early 1950s, the Beetle was imported and transformed into an all-American symbol of simplicity, durability, economy, and savvy-thanks to the innovative advertising campaigns of Doyle Dane Bernbach, an ad agency owned by unabashed Jews.
• How, in the early 1960s, the Bug attached itself to the emerging counterculture by boldly standing apart from the tail-finned monsters of Detroit-and, in 1969, made Disney hip by starring in The Love Bug, which beat out Easy Rider at the box office.
• How the Beetle earned a place in time capsules and rose up again as a chic embodiment of retro-clinching cameos in Austin Powers' flicks and re-igniting interest in VW car clubs as well as the "Bug-ins" and "Bug-outs" car festivals - and is now populating all roads as a global citizen.

About the Author:PHIL PATTON is the author of many books and writes on automobile design for The New York Times. He has been a contributing editor of ID magazine, Esquire, Wired, and Departures.  He teaches at the DCrit program at the School of Visual Arts.  He has been consulting curator for museum shows, including  the Museum of Modern Art's exhibition "Different Roads: Automobiles for a New Century” and has appeared on many programs including CBS Sunday Morning, Today, Charlie Rose, Fresh Air and Talk of the Nation.

Review: I picked this book up at a local salvage store for $1. The book is well written by Phil Patton, and if you like automobiles you will find this book about Volkswagen Bugs and Beetles very interesting! It covers its beginnings with Ferdinand Porche designing it under orders from Adolf Hitler to provide the ordinary German with an affordable automobile to production of the original bug and new bug side by side in the Puebla factory in Mexico. The book goes into great detail of the rise of the bug from the post war ashes of Nazi Germany and covers the heyday of the bug in the 50's and 60's. The book stops around 2002, with detail's about production of the new Bug which actually uses a Volkswagen Golf chassis. I enjoyed the book and recommend it if you can find it and it is a very informative book about one of histories most famous vehicles. 


This would be a great Valentines, birthday or Christmas gift for the Bug enthusiast in your family!

Disclosure / Disclaimer:  This book was purchased for our own use. No compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was we told how to post about the book either.

ISBN-10: 0306813599