%0 Journal Article
%T THE CHOSEN INSTRUMENT? RECONSIDERING THE EARLY RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PAN AMERICAN AIRWAYS AND THE U.S. GOVERNMENT
%A Erik Benson
%J Essays in Economic & Business History
%D 2004
%I The Economic & Business History Society
%X During the late I920s and early 1930s, Pan American Airways became known as the U.S. ¡°chosen instrument¡± for international commercial aviation. Most scholarly work about the U.S. government/Pan Am relationship presents the airline as the government¡¯s instrument. This article challenges this traditional perspective. In certain ways Pan Am was an ¡°instrument,¡± yet in others it defied such categorization. Thus, any notion that Pan Am was a ¡°chosen instrument¡± merits qualification. Drawing upon the ¡°corporatist¡± historical model, this study will present a more sophisticated account of this relationship, one that considers the role of business elites in shaping U.S. policy.
%U http://www.ebhsoc.org/journal/index.php/journal/article/view/75