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Customer Review
Reads Like a Novel
My first car was an old '71 Bug. I always refer to the VW Beetle as a bug because as a kid Disney's original Love Bug was such a fun iconic movie, and that name stuck. I again owned a VW Beetle in the 2000's when the new Beetle hit America and caused a stir once again. So I naturally gravitated to Andrea Hiott's exploration of all things Beetle. Knowing the dark genesis of the VW Beetle; but experiencing the fun, positive reincarnation of the Bug in America, I wanted to know how that metamorphosis transpired. Really it's got to be one of the most successful product repackaging or re-imaging stories in commercial history.Hiott's outstanding treatise answers the metamorphosis question tenfold. Her command of the English language is so satisfying. From the thought-provoking quotes at the beginning of each major section, to the photos, and historical tidbits; this book is enjoyable to read. The book is long; but doesn't bore because it's written as a novel with excellent...
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January 19, 2012
(USA) | Helpful Votes: 7 | Rating: 5
Appreciatd the seldom seen photos and detailed text
As a fan of the Bug who grew up with at least a dozen Beetles and Karmann Ghias I appreciated the detailed history Ms. Hoitt put into this book. It brought back nice memories. As a big fan of auto history I think this is a fine contribution to the large VW body of work. Well-written and informed, I learned many new details about the development of the Bug. Along the way the the reader is immersed in German and European history, pre, during and post-WW2. All in all I enjoyed this book and recommend it.
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January 14, 2012
(Phoenix, AZ USA) | Helpful Votes: 5 | Rating: 5
Product Description
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. Top to learn more
A trifle unpolished--but engaging nonetheless
This is a good book that could have been better. It's structurally a little awkward, and in some places it could use more attention to detail. On the other hand, it's a clear and interesting tale of the Bug's long and improbable genesis, complete with an eccentric automotive genius, a mad dictator, and a creative renegade ad-man.Andrea Hiott makes the interesting choice to eschew technical detail almost entirely. The engineering of the VW Beetle is touched on, but only as it impacts the lives of her protagonists. The people, more than the car, are the focus of _Thinking Small_. It's a biography of a vehicle composed of the biographies of the men (not women) who were its parents and godparents.That's not a bad decision. Some readers will appreciate it more than others; I'm an engineer, and would happily have absorbed more engineering. Many other readers may find the focus on character to be a welcome relief. It helps, too, that the cast is a relatively small...
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January 4, 2012
(Nashua, NH United States) | Helpful Votes: 5 | Rating: 4
Inaccurate picture