to direct the readers towards the most relevant research questions that stem fromthe state-of-the-art literature presented in this book. Such a chapter would havebeen the real added-value of this book of readings.

Yoel Mansfeld: Department of Geography, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.Email <yoel@geo.haifa.ac.il>

Assigned 12 June 2004. Submitted 23 October 2004. Accepted 28 October 2004

doi:10.1016/j.annals.2004.10.006

Strength through Joy: Consumerism and MassTourism in the Third Reich

By Shelley Baranowski. Cambridge University Press <www.cam-bridge.org> 2004, xvi + 254 pp (index) $65.00 Hbk. ISBN 0-521-83352-3

Lynne TaylorUniversity of Waterloo, Canada

One of the fascinating questions regarding the study of the Third Reich is theissue of popular support for the regime. How much of that support was coercedand how much genuine? The balance has proven difficult to determine. It getseven more complicated when one explores the degree of popular support amongthe various sectors of German society: rural versus urban, working class versus mid-dle class, and so on. More, perhaps, has been written about those segments of soci-ety that opposed Hitler’s regime than about the degree to which the Germanpopulation approved of Hitler and his government. Strength through Joy, makesan important contribution to understanding the logic of popular support.

It is surprising that no full-length study of the Kraft durch Freude (KdF) or the‘‘Strength through Joy’’ organization has been published previously. KdF was ahuge enterprise that reached into the homes and workplaces of millions of ordin-ary Germans, and was one of the most popular institutions in Nazi Germany.Through organized mass tourism, factory beautification, rural beautification, orga-nized sports, and a vast array of cultural events, the KdF sought to bridge the gapbetween the state’s need to direct the country’s economic resources into rearma-ment and the growing demand for consumer goods.

The KdF’s purpose was multiple. First, at a politically astute level, it was to alle-viate pent-up demand for consumer goods that the regime insisted could not besatisfied until after the war, and the acquisition of ‘‘living space’’ by offering alter-natives in the form of intangibles. None of these programs were very expensive torun. The mass tourism program, which took Germans on excursions ranging in

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length from three days to three weeks, to various corners of Germany and else-where, was run on a shoestring budget. The factory beautification program wasfunded by the factories themselves; the rural beautification, by the villages beingbeautified. Organized sports, largely based in the workplace, were the employers’fiscal responsibility. These programs were intended to demonstrate that the regimewas improving the standard of living, even if the consumer durables desired werenot yet available.

The KdF had another motive behind its program, one driven by ideologicalimperatives. One of the Nazis’ concerns was that corrupting materialism (‘‘calledFordism’’), born in the United States, was becoming pervasive in Germany. Itsalternative, a Soviet Marxist model of social equality, progress, and extensive socialwelfare was equally repugnant. What the Nazis hoped to instill was a third model.They sought to replace materialist consumption with nonmaterial consumption byfocusing on improving the population’s cultural lives. Through the pursuit of spir-itually and culturally uplifting activities such as art, music, theatre, sport, and tour-ism, as well as the creation of healthful working and living environments, the KdFhoped to unlock and ‘‘embrace the workers’ creative lives on and off the job’’ (p.42). In this way, it would channel the nation’s consumerist tendencies in an appro-priate direction, avoiding the crass materialism of Fordism, and improving produc-tivity The workers were to become more satisfied and consider themselves‘‘creators’’ rather than mere ‘‘workers’’. Work and leisure were to be complemen-tary and mutually reinforcing aspects of an individual’s life, and the workplace andthe KdF’s activities were closely linked indeed.

Another concern of the regime was to eliminate divisions within German soci-ety, especially class differences, but also regionalism, and to create a nation ofone true Volk (people), united and indivisible. Thus, the vacation packages thattook Germans from one corner of the country to another were intended toteach that all were the same: German. Trips to Mediterranean Europe andnorthern Africa served to demonstrate Germany’s technological, economic, ra-cial, and cultural superiority and to reinforce that notion of a common Germannational identity. Ironically, at the same time as the KdF sought to unite thenation, it also reinforced the racial and political cleansing of the body politic.Access to KdF program was restricted to racially and politically appropriate Ger-mans.

The tourism program was the most popular and most successful of all KdF pro-grams, but even it failed to achieve all the KdF’s goals. While millions participated,the evidence is clear that the social divisions remained. The KdF never managed toforge a popular sense of one Volk united. Instead, participants complained queru-lously about the quality of the food and accommodations, and about their fellowtourists while still enthusiastically taking advantage of the low-cost excursions(not unlike tourists everywhere, even today). Nonetheless, the programs were gen-erally well-received. In that sense, they probably did succeed in reinforcing popularsupport for the regime. It is at this point in Baranowski’s argument that it is at itsweakest. In her effort to argue the importance of the KdF, there is a sense that shehas over-emphasized its centrality to the explanation of the regime’s popular sup-port. Certainly millions benefited from its programs and recognized that they weregratis from the state. However, millions more were excluded from its reach. Theyincluded the racially and politically unacceptable, as well as ethnic Germanswho, in theory, qualified but, for a variety of reasons, were unable to participate.Nor is it clear that, without the programs, the population would not have sup-ported the regime. This is, of course, ultimately an unanswerable question, butis a logical conclusion if Baranowski’s argument that the KdF played a central roleis valid. Having said that, it is clear the KdF did play an important part in maintain-ing and enhancing the regime’s reputation, if not a central one. Baranowski hasfilled a gaping hole in understanding the complex factors that contributed to

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the widespread popular support enjoyed by the Nazi regime. For this reason, it isan important work, and one to be read by any interested in this period of Germanhistory.

Lynne Taylor: Department of History, University of Waterloo, Waterloo ON,Canada N2L 3G1. Email <ltaylor@watarts.uwaterloo.ca>

Assigned 6 June 2004. Submitted 16 November 2004. Accepted 24 November 2004

doi:10.1016/j.annals.2004.11.003

Matkailijan ihmeellinen maailma(The Wonderful World of Travelers)

By Auvo Kostiainen, Janne Ahtola, Leila Koivunen, Katariina Korpela,Taina Syrjamaa. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura <www.finlit.fi> 2004,349 pp (figures, references, indices) € 28 Pbk. ISBN 951-746-564-5

Arvo PeltonenUniversity of Joensuu, Finland

The multidisciplinary nature of tourism calls for many different methodologicalapproaches to its study. However, one of the less common is that of the historian,and more so if the language of the historian is other than English. Despite somegrowth of research in geographic areas that might be regarded as scientificallyperipheral to mainstream tourism thrusts, there is a need for more studies on tour-ism topics from these areas. Such efforts can introduce new concepts and problemsdistinctive to the local cultures and their traditions, which will often be mediatedby the local language.

In these respects, Matkailijan ihmeellinen maailma. Matkailun historia vanhaltaajalta omaan aikaamme (The Wonderful World of the Travelers: A History of Travel andTourism from Ancient Times to the Present Day) is a refreshing book. It presents‘‘peripheral’’ scientific aspirations and distinctive local cultures through an exam-ination of the past, present, and future of global tourism from the perspective ofFinnish historians. The authors represent what is known as the ‘‘Turku School ofTourism History’’ (from the name of the University where they work). Althoughthey are Finns and the writing is in Finnish, the scope of the book is mostly inter-national with only some references to Finland. Given its intellectual and geo-graphic scope, the book deserves an international audience.

The temporal perspective of the book reflects a conventional chronology ratherthan the logic of tourism transformation (Towner and Wall 1991). The authors de-fine the perspective of tourism history as the examination of its different forms andthe forces that gave rise to them, such as how types of tourists, their motivations,and means of movement have changed over time. Traveling is defined as a generic

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