Valentina Fava, The Socialist People's Car: Automobiles, Shortages, and Consent in the Czechoslovak Road to Mass Production

摘要

The study of artifacts ranging from trains, ships, artillery, automobiles, small cameras, and phonographs to aircraft is a welcome addition to academia in recent years. Scholars are interested in the cross-cultural exchange of artifacts and their influence on different societies. The introduction of new types of transport, in particular, tends to bring about systemic, society-wide change. This review examines two types of intercultural communication about technological artifacts in two books. The first book, Bicycles and Modern China, authored by young Chinese historian Tao Xu, discusses the history of bicycles and their role in shaping China during its transition from a semicolonial, semifeudal state to a modern country. The second book, The Socialist People's Car, written by Valentina Fava, takes a close look at automobiles in Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 1964, a period in which the country was emerging as an industrial power in Eastern Europe. Both works are explorations of the history of transportation and of technology's impact on society. Both authors, while focused on different time periods, research methods, and geographical areas, are interested in the ways in which imported foreign artifacts have affected and transformed society and everyday lives in their respective countries.