1. The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments and the participants at the“Kathleen Neils Conzen: Historical Legacies” conference,Jan. 5, 2012,Newberry Library, Chicago, Ill., where an early version of this paper was presented.Vultee advertisement,Chicago Prairie Farmer,May1,1943,28.
2. Richard White,Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America(New York:W. W. Norton,2012),144.
3. Nick A. Komons,Bonfires to Beacons: Federal Civil Aviation Policy under the Air Commerce Act, 1926–1938, (Washington, DC:GPO,1978),138;Donald R. Whitnah,Safer Skyways: Federal Control of Aviation, 1926–1966(Ames:Iowa State University Press,1966),35;Daniel L. Rust,Flying across America: The Airline Passenger Experience(Norman:University of Oklahoma Press,2009),37–39.