TheSamba.com :: View topic - “From Hitler to Hippies: The Volkswagen Bus in America”

Sat Mar 20, 2010 5:34 am

Found this thesis paper on line maybe Everett can save it on thesamba as a reference? I haven't completed reading it so I do not know it's accuracy yet but cool read for an offline reader :wink:

http://www.glassblower.info/eurovan/Masters-Thesis-The-Volkswagen-Bus-in-America.pdf

“From Hitler to Hippies: The Volkswagen Bus in America” by David Dyer Burnett, B.A.
from pg 173

"And I began to notice in ‘96 or 97 the stories began to include another part. They seemed to be concluded with the comment ‘and I wish I never sold it.’"
Amen 8)

Sat Mar 20, 2010 6:03 am

wow. that's the kind of garbage that passes as a masters thesis? that was painful.

Sat Mar 20, 2010 6:06 am

It's an opinion piece, not good for reference.

Sat Mar 20, 2010 6:22 am

I think I have to agree with hazetguy.

Sat Mar 20, 2010 6:29 am

Hitler had nothing to do with the bus.

Sat Mar 20, 2010 6:53 am

i couldn't finish it. it was mind numbing

Sat Mar 20, 2010 6:57 am

I couldn't even start it! :lol:

Sat Mar 20, 2010 7:00 am

If one were to get several copies of late-'60s "Small World" magazines, a copy of John Muir's VW repair book, and talk to a handfull of people who used to own a bus, or saw one drive by one day, you'd have all the reference info you need.

...and a master's thesis at the University of Texas at Austin :roll: .

Where's the citation for TheSamba??

The graduate school should be embarrased to have approved such a piece (double entendre intended :wink: )!

Sat Mar 20, 2010 7:07 am

.............he said "hippie" like 10 times in the first 2 pages. I couldn't go on. :roll:

I hope he makes a good grade. 8)

Sat Mar 20, 2010 7:16 am

2 beetles imported in 1949 by ben pon. he said 1959 and went down hill from there.

Sat Mar 20, 2010 7:45 am

vwjedi wrote: .............he said "hippie" like 10 times in the first 2 pages. I couldn't go on. :roll:

I hope he makes a good grade. 8)

I don't; I hope they fail his ass and send him to work digging ditches...

Sat Mar 20, 2010 7:46 am

If that passes as a Thesis paper, I'm looking forward to college.

It's still cool that someone wrote about it, however.

Sat Mar 20, 2010 7:48 am

It sure is not for reading pleasure. The twenty-page bibliography could be useful though. He went on to get his Juris Doctor.

Sat Mar 20, 2010 8:05 am

There were no pictures so I didn't waste my time :lol:

Sat Mar 20, 2010 8:13 am

I agree on all above but cool reading the interviews which is all I looked for. As for the thesis paper I'm going back to grad school if I can use buses as my focus. But I'll be doing my homework :wink:

I am a visual learner I miss the pictures too :cry:

Sat Mar 20, 2010 8:19 am

2002 - Already Graded probably.. Wonder what grade it got?...

That's barely High School writing..

I grew up as a hippie (although we were called 'freaks') And only about 3 people I knew had a volkswagen...

Now a 62 panel chevy with the ZigZag man on it, or a small school bus was more apropos for a freak.

Only rich kids drove nice new VW's and I only had one friend that had a bus.

Back then a 64 ford falcon was only 50 bucks... I bought a 52 chevy pick up for a 100 from my brother in law (a hippie with a 67 mustang fastback 390)

But I lived in the mountains and it was cold.. No one liked VW's for their lack of heat.

Maybe Golden/Idaho Springs was different then the west coast because of the cold.

Seems to me when we looked at a bus (VW) we always thought of Surfers

Sat Mar 20, 2010 9:27 am

Interesting, I may read it sometime. There was an immediate error on page 3 and some other historical errors seen while skimming through it but as Linda said, the personal accounts could be interesting.

Since I don't have a Master's, are they typically written that way with barely any text on each page? The whole document is really only 40-50 pages if written as a normal term paper.

Sat Mar 20, 2010 9:36 am

SO L42Y wrote: It sure is not for reading pleasure. The twenty-page bibliography could be useful though. He went on to get his Juris Doctor.

Didn't read the thesis, but he got his JD? Crap. Damn lawyers.

Sat Mar 20, 2010 9:42 am

Hated it... :-&

Sat Mar 20, 2010 9:43 am

EverettB wrote: Since I don't have a Master's, are they typically written that way with barely any text on each page? The whole document is really only 40-50 pages if written as a normal term paper.

Formatting for theses and dissertations are specified by each institution's Graduate School. All candidates, regardless of what field your thesis or dissertation is in must follow the rules of the Graduate School. Then, every thesis or dissertation that originates from that institution will "look" the same. The formatting requirements for the University of Florida do not call for such generous margins, resulting in much less white space.

Also, not all Master's degrees programs require a thesis. In many programs, a student may opt for the non-thesis route and take an extra course in lieu of the thesis. However, a student planning on pursuing a doctorate must go the thesis route for the Master's degree. Then, the institution to which you apply for doctoral work can see the level of your research aptitude - which is what most doctoral dissertations are all about.

I would love to see the doctoral candidate evaluation committee members' reactions to this gem :)