The Devil's Wheels Men and Motorcycling in the Weimar Republic [Hardcover]

During the high days of modernization fever, among the many disorienting changes Germans experienced in the Weimar Republic was an unprecedented mingling of consumption and identity: increasingly, what one bought signaled who one was. Exemplary of this volatile dynamic was the eras burgeoning motorcycle culture. With automobiles largely a luxury of the upper classes, motorcycles complexly symbolized masculinity and freedom, embodying a widespread desire to embrace progress as well as profound anxieties over the course of social transformation. Through its richly textured account of the motorcycle as both icon and commodity,The Devils Wheelsteases out the intricacies of gender and class in the Weimar years.

A
ne study of the gendering of motorcycles in the inter- war years, Sasha DiskosThe Devils Wheelsoffers an important interpretation of a mass-produced technology, the motorcycle, and how it came to embody masculinity as well as new forms of consumerism. American Historical Review

All in all, Disko offers a pronounced multi-perspective analysis of the motor-cycle as cultural commodity in Weimar Germany, demonstrating impressively what a modern mobility study can achieve& Diskos study is innovative and highly readable&[it] makes an important contribution to the cultural history of motorcycling and even opens up a new perspective on the cultural history of the Weimar Republic. Journal of Transport History

Sasha Diskos study provides a treasure trove of exciting themes for those interested in leisure time activities, gender, consumption but also interactions between the state, through the police, and the motorcyclists on the streets in Weimar Germany. German History

Disko offers a new and exciting interpretation that challenges our understandings of gendered consumption, modernity, and the role that motorcycles played in deflCÁ