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Book Cover
Book
Author Betts, Paul, 1963-

Title The authority of everyday objects : a cultural history of West German industrial design / Paul Betts
Published Berkeley : University of California Press, [2004]
©2004

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Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 MELB  745.20943 Bet/Aoe  AVAILABLE
Description xiii, 348 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Series Weimar and now ; 34
Weimar and now ; 34
Contents Introduction : design, the Cold War, and West German culture -- 1. Re-enchanting the commodity : Nazi modernism reconsidered -- 2. The conscience of the nation : the new German Werkbund -- 3. The Nierentisch nemesis : the promise and peril of organic design -- 4. Design and its discontents : the Ulm Institute of Design -- 5. Design, liberalism, and the state : the German design council -- 6. Coming in from the cold : design and domesticity -- Conclusion : memory and materialism : the return of history as design
Summary "The Authority of Everyday Objects details how the postwar period gave rise to a new design culture comprising a sprawling network of diverse interest groups - including the state and industry, architects and designers, consumer groups and museums, as well as publicists and women's organizations - who all identified industrial design as a vital means of economic recovery, social reform, and even moral regeneration. These cultural battles took on heightened importance precisely because the stakes were nothing less than the very shape and significance of West German domestic modernity. Betts tells the story of how and why commodity aesthetics became a focal point for fashioning a certain West German cultural identity. This book is situated at the very crossroads of German industry and aesthetics, Cold War politics and international modernism, institutional life and visual culture."--BOOK JACKET
Notes Formerly CIP. Uk
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-338) and index
Notes Also available online via the World Wide Web, by subscription to EBL (Ebook Library)
Subject Industrial design -- Germany -- History.
LC no. 2003006429
ISBN 0520240049 cloth alkaline paper
159734477X ebook