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9781789207330

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In this book Gerd Horten brilliantly analyses the problematic impact of Western consumer culture on the GDR in the 1970s and 1980s. No other study has so clearly highlighted the connection between consumer culture and the collapse of the regime. It expands our view of the too often neglected late GDR and offers a persuasive explanation of its decline. Christoph Classen, Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History

Horten has written a fascinating, very readable, analytically sharp monograph, based on an impressive amount of primary and secondary sources... The average East German, not the few dissidents or the few fanatics on top, are the real heroes of his narrative. * H-Soz-Kult Horten's book is a very important new step in understanding the power that Western consumer culture-the Imaginary West -had in placing the GDR in a profound dilemma, one which ultimately caused its downfall. A model of cultural history, Don't Need No Thought Control shines new light on how the GDR attempted to walk a fine line between satisfying its citizens' desire for Western consumer culture while remaining true to its socialist foundations, a task that proved to be ultimately impossible. * Eli Rubin, Western Michigan University In this book Gerd Horten brilliantly analyses the problematic impact of Western consumer culture on the GDR in the 1970s and 1980s. No other study has so clearly highlighted the connection between consumer culture and the collapse of the regime. It expands our view of the too often neglected late GDR and offers a persuasive explanation of its decline. * Christoph Classen, Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History

Horten's book is a very important new step in understanding the power that Western consumer culture-the Imaginary West -had in placing the GDR in a profound dilemma, one which ultimately caused its downfall. A model of cultural history, Don't Need No Thought Control shines new light on how the GDR attempted to walk a fine line between satisfying its citizens' desire for Western consumer culture while remaining true to its socialist foundations, a task that proved to be ultimately impossible. * Eli Rubin, Western Michigan University In this book Gerd Horten brilliantly analyses the problematic impact of Western consumer culture on the GDR in the 1970s and 1980s. No other study has so clearly highlighted the connection between consumer culture and the collapse of the regime. It expands our view of the too often neglected late GDR and offers a persuasive explanation of its decline. * Christoph Classen, Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History

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Gerd Horten is Emeritus Professor of History at Concordia University, Portland, Oregon. His first book, Radio Goes to War: The Cultural Politics of Propaganda during World War II, was published by the University of California Press in 2002, and he has published articles in journals including German History and German Studies Review.

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