Na cestě k lidovému vozu - Stručná charakteristika československého a amerického automobilového průmyslu od počátku hospodářské krize po období revolučních technologických změn v šedesátých letech 20. století
On the path to the car for the people. Brief characteristics of the Czechoslovakian and American automotive industries since the beginning of the Depression till the times of the revolutionary technological changes during the sixties

Author(s): Michal Ulvr
Subject(s): Geography, Regional studies, Economic history, Social history, Interwar Period (1920 - 1939), WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), Post-War period (1950 - 1989), History of Communism
Published by: Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů
Keywords: Czechoslovakia; America; automotive industry; 50s; 60s; depression;
Summary/Abstract: This study focuses on the car as a typical symbol of the consumer society and the general situation in the automotive production in Czechoslovakia and the United States of America since the beginning of the Great Depression till 1964. It analyses the main factors influencing the construction but more importantly the attainability of the car by the general masses. It analyses especially the transition from the war time to the post-war production, which proved to be considerably different in both states. In fact the American car factories managed to set on a completely different course in car construction and manufacturing during the fifties. Whereas the Czechoslovakia and almost all other countries of the world with the ability to manufacture passenger vehicles constructed in the times of insufficiency light and often even two-stroke machines, Americans made a simple calculation, that the manufacturing process of a small or big car costs them roughly the same, but the big car can be sold for considerably more money. As a result till the seventies typical American cars looked like gigantic cruisers of the highways and became satirized targets of the Eastern bloc propaganda. The Czechoslovakian nationalized industry led by AZNP Mladá Boleslav and Tatra had a hard time renewing production and sale in the times, when usage of vehicles for personal needs was disapproved. But during the fifties circumstances changed when under the influence of the Western consumerism, the Czechoslovakian people themselves required better access to the symbol of the affluent society.

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