Author(s): | Walsh, Margaret |
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Reviewer(s): | Singleton, John |
Published by EH.NET (February 2001)
Margaret Walsh, Making Connections: The Long-distance Bus Industry in the
USA . Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000.
Reviewed for EH.NET by John Singleton, Victoria University of Wellington.
Most of the chapters in Margaret Walsh’s study of the US bus industry have
appeared in print before, though in several cases they have done so in
journals (such as Annals of Iowa) that may not fall into the hands of readers
in the British Isles and Australasia. While there is considerable merit in
bringing these papers together in book form, much unnecessary repetition could
have been avoided if more time had been devoted to perfecting the final text.
During the second decade of the twentieth centuries, some US taxi operators
introduced regular services and acquired larger vehicles. This was the basis
for the rapid growth of bus services in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1928, a
Californian firm inaugurated the first transcontinental bus service from Los
Angeles to New York. Greyhound, which would grow into the dominant
long-distance bus operator, had its origins in the mid-West. Capital supplied
by the Great Northern Railroad and mid-Western investment bankers facilitated
the expansion of this network in Minnesota and neighbouring states. By the
late 1920s, Greyhound was taking control of firms in other regions, and in the
1930s it developed a genuine national network. The Second World War brought
new business to the bus companies, due to large movements of troops and
restrictions on private motoring. However, the war also resulted in rising
costs and deteriorating standards of service, as maintenance work was
neglected and firms were forced to persevere with the operation of obsolete
vehicles. Overcrowding and frequent breakdowns alienated the travelling
public. The capping of fares by regulators, notwithstanding rising wage and
other costs, made it difficult in the early post-war era for the bus companies
to modernize their fleets and terminals. After the war, the middle classes
deserted the buses in droves in favour of travel by private automobile, and,
later, by airliner. By the 1960s and 1970s only the poor used scheduled
long-distance bus services, though others still hired buses for special
occasions.
Denied access to the central archives of the Greyhound corporation, Walsh
shows considerable ingenuity in the employment of trade journals, the records
of government enquiries, interviews, and smaller archival collections, several
of which are held privately. There are chapters surveying the rise and fall of
the bus industry, the history of the Greyhound corporation, and the course of
legislation affecting the industry. In addition, accounts are given of the
careers of Helen Schulze, the ‘Iowa Bus Queen’ of the twenties, and her more
successful contemporary Edgar F. Zelle, the ‘Mr Bus’ of Minnesota. Chapters
follow on the use of advertising, the neglected role of women in the bus
industry, and bus photography in the 1940s. Finally, Walsh appends a brief
bibliographical essay. The book is nicely illustrated with old posters as well
as evocative photographs of buses, passengers, and bus stations in the
mid-twentieth century.
Walsh’s study of the bus industry is a blend of business and social history.
The bus industry was not the master of its own destiny. It came into being
through the diffusion of a new technology, the internal combustion engine. It
went into decline when this technology became sufficiently cheap that most
households were able to afford a reliable automobile, and to travel in privacy
rather than among people who might, for one reason or another, be considered
undesirable company. Air travel also provided an increasingly popular
alternative to the bus, due to its speed, glamour, and social exclusivity. An
investigation into the racial aspects of bus travel and bus operation would be
interesting. Walsh indicates that in the mid-twentieth century blacks were
expected to sit at the back of vehicles. Perhaps there is scope here for
further research.
Walsh offers a serviceable introduction to the history of the US bus industry.
Her book is clearly not meant to be definitive, and ought not to be judged on
this basis. Many interesting avenues remain for exploration by other scholars
of the bus industry.
John Singleton is Senior Lecturer in Economic History at Victoria University
of Wellington, New Zealand. His previous books are Lancashire on the
Scrapheap: the Cotton Industry, 1945-70 (1991), The World Textile
Industry (1997,) and jointly edited with R.M. Millward, The Political
Economy of Nationalisation in Britain 1920-1950 (1995). He has just
completed the typescript for a new book, co-authored with Paul Robertson,
entitled Drifting Apart: Economic Relations between Britain and Australasia
from the 1940s to the 1960s, which will be published by Palgrave.
Subject(s): | Transport and Distribution, Energy, and Other Services |
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Geographic Area(s): | North America |
Time Period(s): | 20th Century: Pre WWII |