Airlines and air mail : the post office and the birth of the commercial aviation industry / F. Robert van der Linden.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Van der Linden, F. Robert.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aeronautics, Commercial--United States.

Aeronautics, Commercial.

United States.

Air mail service--United States.

Air mail service.

Physical Description:

xv, 349 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Airlines & air mail

Place of Publication:

Lexington : University Press of Kentucky, [2002]

Summary:

Conventional wisdom credits only entrepreneurs with the vision to create America's commercial airline industry and contends that it was not until Roosevelt's Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 that federal airline regulation began.

F. Robert van der Linden persuasively argues that Progressive republican policies of Herbert Hoover actually fostered the growth of American commercial aviation. Air mail contracts provided a critical indirect subsidy and a financial foundation for this nascent industry. Postmaster General Walter F. Brown used these contracts to ensure that the industry developed in the public interest while guaranteeing the survival of the pioneering companies.

Bureaucrats, entrepreneurs, and politicians of all stripes are thoughtfully portrayed in this thorough chronicle of one of America's most resounding successes, the commercial aviation industry.

Contents:

Foundations

The birth of an industry

The aviation industry comes of age

Consolidation

1929 : the calm before the storm

The post office takes charge

The Watres Act

Realignment

Drawing a new map

Reaction

Cord and Congress

The Democrats take control

Congress assumes command.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [325]-335) and index.

ISBN:

0813122198

OCLC:

48500964