[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Birth rates rose dramatically in the United States and in many Europeancountries as well.(The number of children between the ages of birth and fourin France rose from 3.13 million in 1939 to 3.98 million in 1954; in the UnitedKingdom from 2.99 million in 1931 to 3.718 million in 1951; and in theNetherlands from 849,000 in 1940 to 1.14 million in 1950.) Such statistics inpart explain the youth culture of the postwar era and the so-called generationgap of the 1960s, at which time these baby boomers were reaching youngadulthood.As leader in youth culture and youth benefits, the United States revolutionizedthe nature of higher education.A major response to the sacrifices made by theAmerican troops was the approval of the Servicemen s Adjustment Act of 1944,commonly known as the GI Bill of Rights, which not only allowed veterans toget low-interest mortgages but also guaranteed higher education for thosedesirous and qualified.This benefit, however, was both questioned anddenounced by many famous educators, including President Hutchins of theUniversity of Chicago and President Conant of Harvard who thought a publicworks program made better sense (Bennett 1996: 21).Yet even those stronglysupporting the legislation never imagined the effect it would have.By 1947, 36 A History of Popular Culture1,150,000 veterans swelled a total college population of 2,338,226 (Bennett1996: 18).The elitism that had generally characterized college attendanceheretofore gave way to a democratic development.Now those who wouldpreviously never have dreamed of a college education succeeded in fulfilling itsrequirements and thereby acquired an upward mobility allowed only to HoratioAlger characters in previous generations.Of equal significance was the Fulbright Scholarship program, established in 1946,and now considered one of the main institutions that led to a new dual appreciation:of Americans for other cultures, and of other peoples, principally European, forAmerican culture.Senator J.William Fulbright from Arkansas asked the Senate on27 September 1945 to give him unanimous consent to introduce a bill.authorizing the use of credits established through the sale of surplus propertiesabroad for the promotion of international good will through the exchange ofstudents in the field of education, culture and science (Johnson and Gwertzman1968: 108).Thus the tarnished hallmark of prewar global behavior, provincialism,gave way to an international exchange of previously unimagined proportions.Begun in 1948, the program soon expanded in numbers and countriesparticipating so that twenty years later 82,585 students and faculty members hadstudied in one hundred countries (Johnson and Gwertzmann 1968: 112).Not only did more young people, notably Americans go to college anduniversity, but they did so in automobiles.People the world over took to theroad.The vehicle which let them to do so, the most popular automobile evermanufactured, is the one developed under Nazi aegis, largely because AdolfHitler liked cars.The Volkswagen, the model that evolved familiarly into TheBeetle, reveals its National Socialist origins in its name, translated as the People s Car. It was designed by Dr Ferdinand Porsche, an Austrian engineerwho later did a job on tanks, particularly the formidable Panzer Tiger series.This cheap car model would do for Germany what Ford s Model-T had donefor the United States.With real economy in mind, Porsche originally had notincluded a rear window or windshield wipers, perhaps in the mistaken belief thatthe sun would never set on Nazi Germany.Hitler was enchanted and wanted togo ahead with production.He put together a dubious marketing scheme,promising Germans such a car if they made regular deposits toward its pricethrough a governmental agency.A factory near Hanover in Eastern Germanywas opened with fanfare in 1938, with a few of the forty-four prototypes thenin existence standing bug-eyed, shiny black and at attention as Hitler cementedthe foundation stone in place.He then joined Porsche in the front seats of acabriolet.In another year the German army rolled off to war, the Volkswagenwas made into a sort of German equivalent of the Jeep, and the German dreamof a car for everyone was no longer visible in the thick smoke of battle.When the war ended, and Germany was divided into occupation zonescontrolled by each of the major victors in Europe (United States, Soviet Union,Great Britain and France), the Volkswagen plant, badly bombed but notdestroyed, was in the British sector.It was a British major, Ivan Hurst, whoinspired the rehabilitation of the VW factory in Wolfsburg.Five hundred Beetles World War Two 37were constructed in 1945.Production soon expanded and the car was firstexported to the Netherlands in 1947.The car came to the United States in1949.The name Beetle was a New York advertising agent s idea, inspired bythe rounded, beetle-like shape of the vehicle.The name caught on and soonbecame a term of endearment matching that of Tin Lizzie for the Model-TFord.One decade after the initial production, the millionth Beetle had beenproduced in Wolfsburg.By 1962, 1 million had been imported into the UnitedStates.Then factories were opened in Mexico, Nigeria, Australia, Argentina andSouth Africa.VW phased out production of the Beetle in Europe in 1978, butproduction continued until July 2003 in Mexico.The last Beetle built there,painted light blue, was no.21,529, 464.This vehicle was not sold but instead wasshipped to the VW Museum in Wolfsburg, Germany.This was a world recordfor manufacturing of a single car model.That early model, Nazi memorabilia (medals in profusion and still found atflea markets) and film footage in which Hitler stars and appears with incredibleregularity on American television, are all that remains of what was industriallyinitiated by the Third Reich.In 1964, some 200,000 new VW Beetles hit American roads.In that sameyear, the first GI Joe hit the playroom floor.The small four-cylinder car and thelittle plastic figure with 21 moving parts suggested the range of the expandingmarket of popular culture [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Birth rates rose dramatically in the United States and in many Europeancountries as well.(The number of children between the ages of birth and fourin France rose from 3.13 million in 1939 to 3.98 million in 1954; in the UnitedKingdom from 2.99 million in 1931 to 3.718 million in 1951; and in theNetherlands from 849,000 in 1940 to 1.14 million in 1950.) Such statistics inpart explain the youth culture of the postwar era and the so-called generationgap of the 1960s, at which time these baby boomers were reaching youngadulthood.As leader in youth culture and youth benefits, the United States revolutionizedthe nature of higher education.A major response to the sacrifices made by theAmerican troops was the approval of the Servicemen s Adjustment Act of 1944,commonly known as the GI Bill of Rights, which not only allowed veterans toget low-interest mortgages but also guaranteed higher education for thosedesirous and qualified.This benefit, however, was both questioned anddenounced by many famous educators, including President Hutchins of theUniversity of Chicago and President Conant of Harvard who thought a publicworks program made better sense (Bennett 1996: 21).Yet even those stronglysupporting the legislation never imagined the effect it would have.By 1947, 36 A History of Popular Culture1,150,000 veterans swelled a total college population of 2,338,226 (Bennett1996: 18).The elitism that had generally characterized college attendanceheretofore gave way to a democratic development.Now those who wouldpreviously never have dreamed of a college education succeeded in fulfilling itsrequirements and thereby acquired an upward mobility allowed only to HoratioAlger characters in previous generations.Of equal significance was the Fulbright Scholarship program, established in 1946,and now considered one of the main institutions that led to a new dual appreciation:of Americans for other cultures, and of other peoples, principally European, forAmerican culture.Senator J.William Fulbright from Arkansas asked the Senate on27 September 1945 to give him unanimous consent to introduce a bill.authorizing the use of credits established through the sale of surplus propertiesabroad for the promotion of international good will through the exchange ofstudents in the field of education, culture and science (Johnson and Gwertzman1968: 108).Thus the tarnished hallmark of prewar global behavior, provincialism,gave way to an international exchange of previously unimagined proportions.Begun in 1948, the program soon expanded in numbers and countriesparticipating so that twenty years later 82,585 students and faculty members hadstudied in one hundred countries (Johnson and Gwertzmann 1968: 112).Not only did more young people, notably Americans go to college anduniversity, but they did so in automobiles.People the world over took to theroad.The vehicle which let them to do so, the most popular automobile evermanufactured, is the one developed under Nazi aegis, largely because AdolfHitler liked cars.The Volkswagen, the model that evolved familiarly into TheBeetle, reveals its National Socialist origins in its name, translated as the People s Car. It was designed by Dr Ferdinand Porsche, an Austrian engineerwho later did a job on tanks, particularly the formidable Panzer Tiger series.This cheap car model would do for Germany what Ford s Model-T had donefor the United States.With real economy in mind, Porsche originally had notincluded a rear window or windshield wipers, perhaps in the mistaken belief thatthe sun would never set on Nazi Germany.Hitler was enchanted and wanted togo ahead with production.He put together a dubious marketing scheme,promising Germans such a car if they made regular deposits toward its pricethrough a governmental agency.A factory near Hanover in Eastern Germanywas opened with fanfare in 1938, with a few of the forty-four prototypes thenin existence standing bug-eyed, shiny black and at attention as Hitler cementedthe foundation stone in place.He then joined Porsche in the front seats of acabriolet.In another year the German army rolled off to war, the Volkswagenwas made into a sort of German equivalent of the Jeep, and the German dreamof a car for everyone was no longer visible in the thick smoke of battle.When the war ended, and Germany was divided into occupation zonescontrolled by each of the major victors in Europe (United States, Soviet Union,Great Britain and France), the Volkswagen plant, badly bombed but notdestroyed, was in the British sector.It was a British major, Ivan Hurst, whoinspired the rehabilitation of the VW factory in Wolfsburg.Five hundred Beetles World War Two 37were constructed in 1945.Production soon expanded and the car was firstexported to the Netherlands in 1947.The car came to the United States in1949.The name Beetle was a New York advertising agent s idea, inspired bythe rounded, beetle-like shape of the vehicle.The name caught on and soonbecame a term of endearment matching that of Tin Lizzie for the Model-TFord.One decade after the initial production, the millionth Beetle had beenproduced in Wolfsburg.By 1962, 1 million had been imported into the UnitedStates.Then factories were opened in Mexico, Nigeria, Australia, Argentina andSouth Africa.VW phased out production of the Beetle in Europe in 1978, butproduction continued until July 2003 in Mexico.The last Beetle built there,painted light blue, was no.21,529, 464.This vehicle was not sold but instead wasshipped to the VW Museum in Wolfsburg, Germany.This was a world recordfor manufacturing of a single car model.That early model, Nazi memorabilia (medals in profusion and still found atflea markets) and film footage in which Hitler stars and appears with incredibleregularity on American television, are all that remains of what was industriallyinitiated by the Third Reich.In 1964, some 200,000 new VW Beetles hit American roads.In that sameyear, the first GI Joe hit the playroom floor.The small four-cylinder car and thelittle plastic figure with 21 moving parts suggested the range of the expandingmarket of popular culture [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]