The Devil's Wheels

<p> 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 era's 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 <em>The Devil's Wheels</em> teases out the intricacies of gender and class in the Weimar years.</p>