Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
2004
Abstract
What was unique about the West in twentieth- century transportation history? Carlos Schwantes does not make the claim, but the bulk of what he writes suggests that aviation's triumph as the preferred mode of passenger travel owes a great deal to the circumstances of geography in the American West. Getting there faster was the business traveler's need. Railroads could provide this in the East, but not in the West, where distances simply were too great. In one of the most interesting sections of Going Places, Schwantes shows how the government's manipulation of air mail contracts not only helped define the outlines of intercity commerce in the West, but also created the network structure of the nation's leading airline companies.
Comments
Published in Great Plains Quarterly 24:1 (Winter 2004). Copyright © 2004 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.