Bug: The Strange Mutations of the World's Most Famous Automobile

by Phil Patton

Traces the history of the Volkswagen Beetle, from its first introduction as a Nazi propaganda tool and its postwar status as a countercultural icon to its successful revision in 1998.

Genres: History

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 3, 2002

About the author

Phil Patton is a contributing editor at Departures, Esquire, and I.D., a contributing writer at Wired and an automotive design writer for The New York Times. Phil was a regular contributor to The New York Times Home and Garden section and, in 1998, originated the "Public Eye" column. He has written many books including: Made in USA: The Secret Histories of the Things That Made America (Grove-Weidenfeld, 1992), which was named a New York Times notable book of the year; Bug: The Strange Mutations of the World's Most Famous Automobile (Simon & Schuster, 2002); Michael Graves Designs: The Art of the Everyday Object (Melcher, 2004); and Dreamland: Travels Inside the Secret World of Roswell and Area 51 (Villard, 1998). He has also written for Art in America, ARTnews, Connoisseur, Geo, Harper's Bazaar, Men's Journal, The New Republic, New York Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, Rolling Stone, Smithsonian, Travel + Leisure, Traveler, The Village Voice and Vogue. Phil was the Editorial Consultant on the Guggenheim Museum's "Motorcycle" show in 1998 and Consulting Curator for the "Different Roads" exhibition at MoMA in 1999. In 2000 he was consultant and contributor for "On the Job: Design and the American Office" at the National Building Museum in Washington.

Reviews

[Jacob Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many books on the bug are written like textbooks, filled with facts and figures, but cold and clinical.
This one reads more like a biography of a person. Which is fitting, as more often than not a beetle became a member of the family.

[Brokenshoelace · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a VW owner and semi-enthusiast, I found this book to be very informative and entertaining to read. Appealing to the historian-cum-car geek in all of us.

[Bill]

A really fun book that documents this cultural icon from Hitler's pet project to that zeitgeist shape of the late 1990s: the Bondi Blue iMac, its erstwhile partner in design.

[Rae · Rating 5 out of 5]

No revelation or important information. Just another book