|
Showing 1 - 1 of
1 matches in All Departments
One of the world's largest sellers of footwear, the Bata Company of
Zlin, Moravia has a remarkable history that touches on crucial
aspects of what made the world modern. In the twilight of the
Habsburg Empire, the company Americanized its production model
while also trying to Americanize its workforce. It promised a
technocratic form of governance in the chaos of postwar
Czechoslovakia, and during the Roaring Twenties, it became
synonymous with rationalization across Europe and thus a flashpoint
for a continent-wide debate. While other companies contracted in
response to the Great Depression, Bata did the opposite, becoming
the first shoe company to unlock the potential of globalization. As
Bata expanded worldwide, it became an example of corporate national
indifference, where company personnel were trained to be able to
slip into and out of national identifications with ease. Such
indifference, however, was seriously challenged by the geopolitical
crisis of the 1930s, and by the cusp of the Second World War, Bata
management had turned nationalist, even fascist. In the Kingdom of
Shoes unravels the way the Bata project swept away tradition and
enmeshed the lives of thousands of people around the world in the
industrial production of shoes. Using a rich array of archival
materials from two continents, the book answers how Bata's rise to
the world's largest producer of shoes challenged the nation-state,
democracy, and Americanization.
|
You may like...
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
|
Email address subscribed successfully.
A activation email has been sent to you.
Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription.