Why read The Socialist Car?

Book cover of The Socialist Car: Automobility in the Eastern Bloc

Book description

Across the Soviet Bloc, from the 1960s until the collapse of communism, the automobile exemplified the tension between the ideological imperatives of political authorities and the aspirations of ordinary citizens. For the latter, the automobile was the ticket to personal freedom and a piece of the imagined consumer paradise of…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Socialist Car as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Sean Eedy

Author

I love books that explore the Soviet Bloc through its development of consumer culture. Much as they were in the West, in the East, cars were symbolic of progress and modernity. Unlike the West, production and distribution problems created a car culture focused on access.

Still, the regimes struggled to control the excesses of consumer impulse more than they did the abuses of authority. This volume is fascinating as it asserts that the Soviet Bloc states were consumer-driven societies, given the same desires and demands as the West, despite their communist ideology.

Cars were political, and acquiring one may demand…

From Sean's list on The best books about everyday life and politics in the Soviet Bloc.