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.

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

Get Book Here

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.

History of Union County, New Jersey

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Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Union County (N.J.)
Languages : en
Pages : 822

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History of Union County, New Jersey

History of Union County, New Jersey PDF Author: Abraham Van Doren Honeyman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Union County (N.J.)
Languages : en
Pages : 542

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An Illustrated History of Union and Wallowa Counties, with a Brief Outline of the Early History of the State of Oregon

An Illustrated History of Union and Wallowa Counties, with a Brief Outline of the Early History of the State of Oregon PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Oregon
Languages : en
Pages : 764

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Lippincott's Pronouncing Gazetteer. ...

Lippincott's Pronouncing Gazetteer. ... PDF Author: Joseph Thomas
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Geography
Languages : en
Pages : 2210

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The History of the United States Post Office to the Year 1829

The History of the United States Post Office to the Year 1829 PDF Author: Wesley Everett Rich
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Postal service
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Postwesen ; Postgeschichte ; Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika / USA ; Geschichte ; Postverkehr ; Finanzen ; Organisation.

Lippincott's Pronouncing Gazetteer

Lippincott's Pronouncing Gazetteer PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1192

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A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer Or Geographical Dictionary of the World

A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer Or Geographical Dictionary of the World PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 2386

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A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer, Or, Geographical Dictionary of the World

A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer, Or, Geographical Dictionary of the World PDF Author: Joseph Thomas
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Geography
Languages : en
Pages : 2200

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History of Union County, Iowa

History of Union County, Iowa PDF Author: George A. Ide
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Latter Day Saint pioneers
Languages : en
Pages : 932

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Book Description