The Best Transportation System in the World: Railroads, Trucks, Airlines, and American Public Policy in the Twentieth Century
The Best Transportation System in the World focuses on the centrality of government in organizing the nation's transportation industries. As the authors show, over the course of the twentieth century, transportation in the United States was as much a product of hard-fought politics, lobbying, and litigation as it was a naturally evolving system of engineering and available technology.

For example, in the mid-1950s, President Eisenhower, concerned about a railroad industry in decline, asked Congress to grant railroad executives authority to modify prices and service even as he introduced the legislation that provided for the national highway system. And as early as the 1960s, presidents across the political spectrum, including Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter, sought broad deregulation of the transportation industry in order to prime the economic pump or, in the 1970s, reverse stagflation. At every turn, the authors contend, political considerations served to shape the businesses and infrastructure that Americans use to travel.

1101622364
The Best Transportation System in the World: Railroads, Trucks, Airlines, and American Public Policy in the Twentieth Century
The Best Transportation System in the World focuses on the centrality of government in organizing the nation's transportation industries. As the authors show, over the course of the twentieth century, transportation in the United States was as much a product of hard-fought politics, lobbying, and litigation as it was a naturally evolving system of engineering and available technology.

For example, in the mid-1950s, President Eisenhower, concerned about a railroad industry in decline, asked Congress to grant railroad executives authority to modify prices and service even as he introduced the legislation that provided for the national highway system. And as early as the 1960s, presidents across the political spectrum, including Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter, sought broad deregulation of the transportation industry in order to prime the economic pump or, in the 1970s, reverse stagflation. At every turn, the authors contend, political considerations served to shape the businesses and infrastructure that Americans use to travel.

34.95 In Stock
The Best Transportation System in the World: Railroads, Trucks, Airlines, and American Public Policy in the Twentieth Century

The Best Transportation System in the World: Railroads, Trucks, Airlines, and American Public Policy in the Twentieth Century

The Best Transportation System in the World: Railroads, Trucks, Airlines, and American Public Policy in the Twentieth Century

The Best Transportation System in the World: Railroads, Trucks, Airlines, and American Public Policy in the Twentieth Century

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Overview

The Best Transportation System in the World focuses on the centrality of government in organizing the nation's transportation industries. As the authors show, over the course of the twentieth century, transportation in the United States was as much a product of hard-fought politics, lobbying, and litigation as it was a naturally evolving system of engineering and available technology.

For example, in the mid-1950s, President Eisenhower, concerned about a railroad industry in decline, asked Congress to grant railroad executives authority to modify prices and service even as he introduced the legislation that provided for the national highway system. And as early as the 1960s, presidents across the political spectrum, including Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter, sought broad deregulation of the transportation industry in order to prime the economic pump or, in the 1970s, reverse stagflation. At every turn, the authors contend, political considerations served to shape the businesses and infrastructure that Americans use to travel.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780812221169
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Publication date: 07/08/2010
Pages: 344
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Mark H. Rose is Professor of History at Florida Atlantic University. Bruce E. Seely is Professor of History at Michigan Technological University. Paul F. Barrett was Professor of History and Chair of the Department of Humanities at Illinois Institute of Technology.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction

Ch.1. Seeking a new regulatory regime in transportation: railroad consolidation in the 1920s
Ch. 2. The new transportation problem: the politics of transportation coordination, 1925-1940
Ch. 3. Constructing commercial aviation, 1944-1973
Ch. 4. Run-up to deregulation: surface transportation, 1949-1970
Ch. 5. Transportation in a "Presidential Nation"
Ch. 6. Richard M. Nixon and planning for deregulation, 1970-1974
Ch. 7. Gerald R. Ford and presidential deregulation, 1974-1977
Ch. 8. Jimmy Carter and deregulation of the "best transportation system in the world," 1977-1980
Ch. 9. The American state and transportation

Conclusion
Acknowledgments

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