The History of the Rural Free Mail Delivery in the United States

The History of the Rural Free Mail Delivery in the United States PDF Author: Lena Bedenbender Hecker
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Postal service
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description

The History of the Rural Free Mail Delivery in the United States

The History of the Rural Free Mail Delivery in the United States PDF Author: Lena Bedenbender Hecker
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Postal service
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description


How the Post Office Created America

How the Post Office Created America PDF Author: Winifred Gallagher
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0399564039
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
A masterful history of a long underappreciated institution, How the Post Office Created America examines the surprising role of the postal service in our nation’s political, social, economic, and physical development. The founders established the post office before they had even signed the Declaration of Independence, and for a very long time, it was the U.S. government’s largest and most important endeavor—indeed, it was the government for most citizens. This was no conventional mail network but the central nervous system of the new body politic, designed to bind thirteen quarrelsome colonies into the United States by delivering news about public affairs to every citizen—a radical idea that appalled Europe’s great powers. America’s uniquely democratic post powerfully shaped its lively, argumentative culture of uncensored ideas and opinions and made it the world’s information and communications superpower with astonishing speed. Winifred Gallagher presents the history of the post office as America’s own story, told from a fresh perspective over more than two centuries. The mandate to deliver the mail—then “the media”—imposed the federal footprint on vast, often contested parts of the continent and transformed a wilderness into a social landscape of post roads and villages centered on post offices. The post was the catalyst of the nation’s transportation grid, from the stagecoach lines to the airlines, and the lifeline of the great migration from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It enabled America to shift from an agrarian to an industrial economy and to develop the publishing industry, the consumer culture, and the political party system. Still one of the country’s two major civilian employers, the post was the first to hire women, African Americans, and other minorities for positions in public life. Starved by two world wars and the Great Depression, confronted with the country’s increasingly anti-institutional mind-set, and struggling with its doubled mail volume, the post stumbled badly in the turbulent 1960s. Distracted by the ensuing modernization of its traditional services, however, it failed to transition from paper mail to email, which prescient observers saw as its logical next step. Now the post office is at a crossroads. Before deciding its future, Americans should understand what this grand yet overlooked institution has accomplished since 1775 and consider what it should and could contribute in the twenty-first century. Gallagher argues that now, more than ever before, the imperiled post office deserves this effort, because just as the founders anticipated, it created forward-looking, communication-oriented, idea-driven America.

The U.S. Postal Service

The U.S. Postal Service PDF Author: Margaret Uphall
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc
ISBN: 1508161070
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 26

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Book Description
Today, many people regard the postal service as an outdated method of notification. However, the U.S. postal service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the United States. The U.S. Constitution officially established this important institution, which traces its roots back to the Second Continental Congress in 1775. Without the postal service, many people would not be able to receive necessary correspondence. This book explores the history of the U.S. Postal Service and the role of this institution is vital to American daily life. Full-color photographs and a graphic organizer provide students with the tools necessary to make connections beyond the text.

A Short History of Mail Delivery

A Short History of Mail Delivery PDF Author: Paul R. Wonning
Publisher: Mossy Feet Books
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 115

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Book Description
A Short History of Mail Delivery relates the story of mail delivery from the messenger services of the ancient world to the wonders of instantaneous modern email delivery. Readers will learn about the first postage stamps as well as the beginnings of package delivery giants Federal Express and United Parcel Service. messenger, united parcel, service, , delivery, postage stamp, email, federal express

Neither Snow Nor Rain

Neither Snow Nor Rain PDF Author: Devin Leonard
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN: 0802189970
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 381

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Book Description
“[The] book makes you care what happens to its main protagonist, the U.S. Postal Service itself. And, as such, it leaves you at the end in suspense.” —USA Today Founded by Benjamin Franklin, the United States Postal Service was the information network that bound far-flung Americans together, and yet, it is slowly vanishing. Critics say it is slow and archaic. Mail volume is down. The workforce is shrinking. Post offices are closing. In Neither Snow Nor Rain, journalist Devin Leonard tackles the fascinating, centuries-long history of the USPS, from the first letter carriers through Franklin’s days, when postmasters worked out of their homes and post roads cut new paths through the wilderness. Under Andrew Jackson, the post office was molded into a vast patronage machine, and by the 1870s, over seventy percent of federal employees were postal workers. As the country boomed, USPS aggressively developed new technology, from mobile post offices on railroads and airmail service to mechanical sorting machines and optical character readers. Neither Snow Nor Rain is a rich, multifaceted history, full of remarkable characters, from the stamp-collecting FDR, to the revolutionaries who challenged USPS’s monopoly on mail, to the renegade union members who brought the system—and the country—to a halt in the 1970s. “Delectably readable . . . Leonard’s account offers surprises on almost every other page . . . [and] delivers both the triumphs and travails with clarity, wit and heart.” —Chicago Tribune

Mixed Harvest

Mixed Harvest PDF Author: Hal S. Barron
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807860263
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
Mixed Harvest explores rural responses to the transformation of the northern United States from an agricultural society into an urban and industrial one. According to Hal S. Barron, country people from New England to North Dakota negotiated the rise of large-scale organizational society and consumer culture in ways marked by both resistance and accommodation, change and continuity. Between 1870 and 1930, communities in the rural North faced a number of challenges. Reformers and professionals sought to centralize authority and diminish local control over such important aspects of rural society as schools and roads; large-scale business corporations wielded increasing market power, to the detriment of independent family farmers; and an encroaching urban-based consumer culture threatened rural beliefs in the primacy of their local communities and the superiority of country life. But, Barron argues, by reconfiguring traditional rural values of localism, independence, republicanism, and agrarian fundamentalism, country people successfully created a distinct rural subculture. Consequently, agrarian society continued to provide a counterpoint to the dominant trends in American society well into the twentieth century.

R.F.D.

R.F.D. PDF Author: Wayne Edison Fuller
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Rural free delivery
Languages : en
Pages : 748

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Rural Free Delivery Service

Rural Free Delivery Service PDF Author: United States. Congress. House
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Postal service
Languages : en
Pages : 124

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Rural Free Delivery; Its History and Development. Extracts From the Annual Report of First Assistant Postmaster-general Perry S. Heath for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1899

Rural Free Delivery; Its History and Development. Extracts From the Annual Report of First Assistant Postmaster-general Perry S. Heath for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1899 PDF Author: United States Post Office Dept
Publisher: Legare Street Press
ISBN: 9781019575154
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This fascinating historical document offers a glimpse into the early years of the Rural Free Delivery service, which brought mail directly to rural households across the United States. Featuring original language and illustrations from the 1899 report, this book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in postal history or rural life in turn-of-the-century America. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

R.F.D. Country!

R.F.D. Country! PDF Author: Bill Thornbrook
Publisher: Schiffer Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 104

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Book Description
Over 450 original and colorful letter boxes and post offices comprise a "national gallery" of roadside folk art, as seen in color photos taken along thousands of miles of country byways. Readers are guided over Rural Free Delivery (R.F.D.) mail routes through 48 states in America on this unique guided tour.