The Beetle’s full story, from concept in pre-war Germany through 55 years of production & 22-million sales around the world. Colour features on 21 milestone models. Includes many sidebars & panels detailing Beetle facts, figures, feats, advertising, & more. The complete book of the Beetle.

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.

Sometimes achieving big things requires the ability to think small. This simple concept was the driving force that propelled the Volkswagen Beetle to become an avatar of American-style freedom, a household brand, and a global icon. The VW Bug inspired the ad men of Madison Avenue, beguiled Woodstock Nation, and has recently been re-imagined for the hipster generation. And while today it is surely one of the most recognizable cars in the world, few of us know the compelling details of this car’s story. In Thinking Small, journalist and cultural historian Andrea Hiott retraces the improbable journey of this little car that changed the world. Andrea Hiott’s wide-ranging narrative stretches from the factory floors of Weimar Germany to the executive suites of today’s automotive innovators, showing how a succession of artists and engineers shepherded the Beetle to market through periods of privation and war, reconstruction and recovery. Henry Ford’s Model T may have revolutionized the American auto industry, but for years Europe remained a place where only the elite drove cars. That all changed with the advent of the Volkswagen, the product of a Nazi initiative to bring driving to the masses. But Hitler’s concept of “the people’s car” would soon take on new meaning. As Germany rebuilt from the rubble of World War II, a whole generation succumbed to the charms of the world’s most huggable automobile. Indeed, the story of the Volkswagen is a story about people, and Hiott introduces us to the men who believed in it, built it, and sold it: Ferdinand Porsche, the visionary Austrian automobile designer whose futuristic dream of an affordable family vehicle was fatally compromised by his patron Adolf Hitler’s monomaniacal drive toward war; Heinrich Nordhoff, the forward-thinking German industrialist whose management innovations made mass production of the Beetle a reality; and Bill Bernbach, the Jewish American advertising executive whose team of Madison Avenue mavericks dreamed up the legendary ad campaign that transformed the quintessential German compact into an outsize worldwide phenomenon. Thinking Small is the remarkable story of an automobile and an idea. Hatched in an age of darkness, the Beetle emerged into the light of a new era as a symbol of individuality and personal mobility—a triumph not of the will but of the imagination.

The story of these wonderfully stylish cars, built on the ultra-dependable VW Beetle chassis and running gear. Produced between 1955 and 1974, these timeless models are now classics. Here is the essential guide to the curvy and collectible VW-based Karmann Ghias.

This book tells the definitive international story of the Volkswagen Type 3. Simon Glen writes from first-hand experience, having owned seven Type 3s - five Variants, a 1500 Notchback and a 1500S Karmann·Ghia - which have been driven through Africa, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

This practical introductory text presents the comprehensive field of public relations as it is today and as it will be tomorrow, exploring how public relations can play an active role in the betterment of society.

Introduction to Public Relations: Strategic, Digital, and Socially Responsible Communication presents a comprehensive introduction to the field of public relations (PR) with a focus on new media and social responsibility. Recognizing that the shifts in technology, business, and culture require a fresh approach, authors Janis Teruggi Page and Lawrence J. Parnell show students how today′s PR professionals create persuasive messages with modern technologies while working in line with the industry′s foundations. The authors balance this approach with a focus on understanding communication theory, history, process, and practice, and how all these concepts can be applied to strategic PR planning. The Second Edition features new and refreshed content throughout, including cases, chapter-opening scenarios, and profiles of both young and senior practitioners with tips and career guidance for student success. Included with this title: The password-protected Instructor Resource Site (formally known as SAGE Edge) offers access to all text-specific resources, including a test bank and editable, chapter-specific PowerPoint® slides.