Phil Patton is the author of Dreamland: Inside the Secret World of Roswell and Area 51, Made in USA, Open Road, and other books. He writes regularly for the "Design Notebook," "Public Eye," and automotive columns of The New York Times and is a contributing editor of ID magazine, Wired, and Esquire, for which he writes on design and automobiles. He served as a consulting curator for the Museum of Modern Art's 1999 exhibition "Different Roads: Automobiles for the New Century." He has taught at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and served as a commentator for CBS News, the History Channel, and several public television series.

    BUG: THE STRANGE MUTATIONS OF THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS AUTOMOBILE

    "A peppy, perspicacious cultural history of the Volkswagen."
    -- Kirkus Reviews

    "A super job ... Patton (writes) with authority and style ... This first-rate blend of business and social history should hit a chord of nostalgia with many readers. "
    -- BookPages

    What do Ferdinand Porsche, Adolf Hitler, Henry Ford, and Walt Disney have in common? They've all played a pivotal role in the development of the most produced and best known car of all time: the Volkswagen Beetle. Cultural chronicler Phil Patton brilliantly traces this distinctive car's evolution and its impact beyond the highway and around the world in BUG (Simon & Schuster; $25.00). Patton attests that "the Bug's mental life far exceeds its metal one. The Bug stands as proof that images and ideas swing through culture as if by their own power, evolving, adapting to new environments, latching on to new human champions, infecting new human beings with enthusiasm."

    Since 1941, more than 22 million VW Beetles have been built. Originating in Germany, Bugs have been manufactured in Brazil, Australia, and Nigeria, and driven with a passion across the United States. Today, the largest plant is far from the Bug's homeland-in Puebla, Mexico. The New Beetle is a high-tech, high-style homage to the original and was unveiled in 1998. About a hundred miles from the factory, Mexico City is infested with the "old" Bug-nearly two million of the species. In spite of their surface similarities-the signature shape and colors, proudly exaggerated in the 1998 incarnation-the old and the new Beetles are worlds apart, mechanically and culturally.

    In captivating detail, BUG follows every turn and twist on the road from conception to icon. From Berlin to Detroit, from Madison Avenue to Hollywood, Phil Patton illuminates how economic and political forces shaped the Beetle-and how the Beetle made its mark on history. Among many remarkable chapters in the car's biography:

    • How Hitler conceived the Beetle as a reliable and affordable "real car" for the German people, how Porsche made the Fuhrer's vision of streamlined function a working reality, and how the Nazis used the revolutionary car as a tool for propaganda.
    • How, in the early 1950s, the Beetle was imported and transformed into an all-American symbol of simplicity, durability, economy, and savvy-thanks to the innovative advertising campaigns of Doyle Dane Bernbach, an ad agency owned by unabashed Jews.
    • How, in the early 1960s, the Bug attached itself to the emerging counterculture by boldly standing apart from the tail-finned monsters of Detroit-and, in 1969, made Disney hip by starring in The Love Bug, which beat out Easy Rider at the box office.
    • How the Beetle earned a place in time capsules and rose up again as a chic embodiment of retro-clinching cameos in Austin Powers' flicks and re-igniting interest in VW car clubs as well as the "Bug-ins" and "Bug-outs" car festivals - and is now populating all roads as a global citizen.

    For car mavens, history buffs, and anyone drawn to the unexpected detours of culture, BUG offers a rollicking, riveting, and eye-opening ride. Kirkus Reviews notes that "with brio and dash, Patton charts the long strange trip of the little bug that became a grand cultural totem."

    BUG brings a fresh and exciting perspective to a story many think they already know. It has been compared to Cod and Brunelleschi's Dome.

To read a review of the book, click here.

For more information on the book including ordering info, click here.

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