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In much the same way that Japan has become the focus of contemporary American discussion about industrial restructuring, Germans in the economic reform in terms of Americanism and Fordism, seeing in the United States an intriguing vision for a revitalized economy and a new social order. During the 1920s, Germans were fascinated by American economic success and its quintessential symbols, Henry Ford and his automobile factories. Mary Nolan's book explores the contradictory ways in which trade unionists and industrialists, engineers and politicians, educators and social workers explained American economic success, envisioned a more efficient or "rationalized" economic system for Germany, and anguished over the social and cultural costs of adopting the American version of modernity. These debates about Americanism and Fordism deeply shaped German perceptions of what was economically and socially possible and desirable in terms of technology and work, family and gender relations, consumption and culture. Nolan examines efforts to transform production and consumption, factories and homes, and argues that economic Americanism was implemented ambivalently and incompletely, producing, in the end, neither prosperity nor political stability. Vision of Modernity will appeal not only to scholars of German History and those interested in European social and working-class history, but also to industrial sociologists and business scholars.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Abbreviations(p. xi)
• 1. Introduction(p. 3)
• Part I Imagining America
• 2. Journeys to America(p. 17)
• Travelers and Commentators(p. 18)
• Motives(p. 22)
• Itineraries(p. 26)
• 3. The Infatuation with Fordism(p. 30)
• The Man and the Book(p. 32)
• Fordism as Productivism(p. 36)
• Taylorism and Fordism(p. 42)
• Fordism as Consumption(p. 50)
• Fordism as Ideology(p. 54)
• 4. American Economic Success and German Emulation(p. 58)
• The Secrets of American Economic Success(p. 59)
• Americanizing Germany/Germanizing Americanism(p. 70)
• 5. Work, Workers, and the Workplace in America(p. 83)
• Quality Work and the Quality Worker(p. 84)
• Intensity and Monotony(p. 90)
• Joy in Work(p. 98)
• The Shop Floor and the Firm(p. 103)
• 6. The Cultural Consequences of Americanism(p. 108)
• Mass Consumption(p. 109)
• The American Woman(p. 120)
• Part II Modernizing Germany
• 7. The Paradoxes of Productivism(p. 131)
• The National Productivity Board(p. 133)
• Ruhr Coal Mining(p. 137)
• Iron and Steel(p. 143)
• Machine Making(p. 149)
• 8. Winners and Losers(p. 154)
• Prices(p. 155)
• Costs(p. 158)
• Wages(p. 160)
• Profits(p. 165)
• Work and Unemployment(p. 167)
• Reactions and Responses(p. 172)
• 9. Engineering the New Worker(p. 179)
• Company Social Policy and Social Rationalization(p. 180)
• Origins and Ideology of Dinta(p. 185)
• Constructing the New Worker(p. 192)
• Company Newspapers and Social Programs(p. 196)
• Trade Union Responses(p. 200)
• The Battle for the Soul of the Worker(p. 203)
• 10. Hoysework Made Easy(p. 206)
• The RKW and Housework(p. 207)
• The New Woman in the New Home(p. 211)
• The Ambiguities of Household Rationalization(p. 217)
• Epilogue(p. 227)
• Notes(p. 237)
• Bibliographic Essay(p. 307)
• Index(p. 314)

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CHOICE Review

It will come as no surprise that Germans have always been intrigued and baffled by America. During the Weimar Republic it was the scientific management theories of Henry Ford and Frederick W. Taylor that both attracted and repulsed Germans of all political persuasions. Germans argued that the future seemed to belong to either Americanism or communism, and they did not like either. While they vigorously argued the merits of "Americanism," or rationalization as they called it, German industry modernized without the mass production and mass consumption so typical of America. Germans modernized with a commitment to efficiency, productivity, austerity, "German quality," and "joy in work," thereby avoiding the more disliked qualities of Americanism like mass consumerism and the emancipated woman. Nolan (New York Univ.) has written an excellent economic, political, social, and cultural history of how Weimar Germany "Germanized" its perceptions of Americanism both conceptually and in practice. Ironically, after all the confused analyses, torturous debates, and misguided policies about Americanism, it was the Nazis who were there to pick up the pieces. Unfortunately there are no illustrations; definitely for advanced students and researchers.

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Mary Nolan is Professor of History at New York University