{"product_id":"synthetic-socialism-plastics-and-dictatorship-in-the-german-democratic-republic-9781469615103","title":"Synthetic Socialism: Plastics and Dictatorship in the German Democratic Republic","description":"Eli Rubin takes an innovative approach to consumer culture to explore questions of political consensus and consent and the impact of ideology on everyday life in the former East Germany. \u003ci\u003eSynthetic Socialism\u003c\/i\u003e explores the history of East Germany through the production and use of a deceptively simple material: plastic. Rubin investigates the connections between the communist government, its Bauhaus-influenced designers, its retooled postwar chemical industry, and its general consumer population. He argues that East Germany was neither a totalitarian state nor a niche society but rather a society shaped by the confluence of unique economic and political circumstances interacting with the concerns of ordinary citizens.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo East Germans, Rubin says, plastic was a high-technology material, a symbol of socialism's scientific and economic superiority over capitalism. Most of all, the state and its designers argued, plastic goods were of a particularly special quality, not to be thrown away like products of the wasteful West. Rubin demonstrates that this argument was accepted by the mainstream of East German society, for whom the modern, socialist dimension of a plastics-based everyday life had a deep resonance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Eli Rubin\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of North Carolina Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/01\/2014\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 304\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.00lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.40h x 6.10w x 0.90d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781469615103\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEli Rubin is currently visiting scholar at the Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung and fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Berlin. He is assistant professor of history at Western Michigan University.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of North Carolina Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":45115605745779,"sku":"9781469615103","price":67.95,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/9255\/0515\/files\/img_c29dbdf8-0c2f-4d6f-8854-45404fcce1be.jpg?v=1781787141","url":"https:\/\/bookstorenmore.com\/en-de\/products\/synthetic-socialism-plastics-and-dictatorship-in-the-german-democratic-republic-9781469615103","provider":"Bookstore N More","version":"1.0","type":"link"}