1st Edition

Making Connections The Long-Distance Bus Industry in the USA

By Margaret Walsh Copyright 2001

    An examination of the varied paths of the American inter-city bus industry from its origins in the second decade of the 20th century to deregulation in 1982. This sector of transport has been much neglected by historians and this book seeks to uncover a range of useful and pertinent information to those who are interested in understanding entrepreneurial endeavours, patterns of mobility and consumer attitudes. It analyzes the development of the national industry, probes the growth of particular companies and investigates specific aspects of business behaviour. The work is presented as a series of focused essays which offer insights into such topics as regulation, marketing, gender patterns and intermodal competition. It draws on diverse archival materials, government surveys and findings, trade publications, interviews and photographs. A wide-ranging bibliographical essay offers a guide to available sources.

    Introduction

    Main Routes: From Jitney to Giant: the early growth of long-distance bus transport in the USA

    Missing connections: the long-distance bus industry in the USA from the Second World War to deregulation

    Regional Highways: Tracing the hound: the Minnesota roots of the Greyhound Bus Corporation; Iowa’s bus queen: Helen M. Schultz and the Red Ball Transportation Company

    Minnesota’s ‘Mr Bus’: Edgar F. Zelle and the Jefferson Highway Transportation Company

    Alternative Avenues: The Motor Carrier Act of 1935: the origins and establishment of federal regulation of the interstate bus industry in the USA

    “See this amazing America”: the long-distance bus industry’s use of advertising in its first quarter century

    Not Rosie the Riveter: women’s diverse roles in the making of the American long-distance bus industry

    On and off the buses: 1940s images from New York

    Bibliographical essay and bibliography

    Index.

    Biography

    Linda L. Berger is Family Found’n Professor of Law at University of Nevada Las Vegas, Boyd School of Law. She has helped develop the field of applied legal rhetoric and has published widely in this and related areas. Kathryn M. Stanchi is Professor of Law at Temple University Beasley School of Law. She is recognized as the leading scholar to bring persuasion science into the literature of legal persuasion. She has published and lectured extensively on this and related topics.