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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.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
June 28, 2016 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780399564031
- File size: 13193 KB
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780399564031
- File size: 13774 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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May 2, 2016
The post office may not have actually “created” America, but journalist Gallagher (New: Understanding Our Need for Novelty and Change) makes a strong case for its historical importance in this brisk history. Forging early links among the colonies and then uniting the nation and its frontier as settlers moved west, the post office has by necessity survived by modernizing and developing in parallel with the nation. The institution single-mindedly pursued more efficient systems of delivery for generations, though it struggled with the demands of independent contractors—whether stagecoach operators or airlines—and opportunistic competitors that were able to adapt faster than the federal bureaucracy. The 1970 transformation of the Post Office Department into the U.S. Postal Service, a business run by the government, was meant to ameliorate these problems. But, as Gallagher explains, this shift in emphasis from innovation to the bottom line may have doomed the post office as it entered the digital age. Despite its waning relevance, Gallagher still sees the post office as a pride-inducing institution. Socially progressive since its inception, the post office represents one of the purest distillations of America and takes on one of modern democracy’s most necessary (and tedious) tasks: the convenient distribution of information and ideas to every American with a mailbox. Agent: Kristine Dahl, ICM. -
February 15, 2016
Gallagher, who has written well-received books blending science and cultural study (e.g., Just the Way You Are), does something different here, offering a thoroughgoing study of the U.S. Post Office that argues for its important role in the country's formation. For instance, Benjamin Franklin was the Crown's first postmaster general, a position long part of the cabinet, and women and African Americans participated in democracy in significant ways through the post office. Originally scheduled for July but bumped up to June.
Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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April 15, 2016
This fascinating narrative history of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) describes the political and technological challenges the agency faced while trying to deliver mail to an expanding nation. Gallagher (New: Understanding Our Need for Novelty and Change) shows that throughout its history, factors such as a dependence on congressional budgets and both executive-branch action and inaction along with a cumbersome patronage system have kept the USPS from fully controlling its own services. The agency frequently attempted to use technological innovation, including vast rail, road, and air systems, to deliver communications quickly and efficiently. Resistance from the private sector prevented or delayed many improvements such as attempts to integrate telegraphy and computerization or the establishment of postal savings banks. These frustrations lasted throughout the 20th century. Despite setbacks, the system continued to update with the times, although never as rapidly as critics would have liked. Gallagher contends that criticism should often be directed at those outside the USPS. VERDICT This readable book relays the complicated history of an institution that is thoroughly integrated into American life; in this sense it is superior to Devin Leonard's Neither Snow Nor Rain [reviewed below]. Highly recommended for public libraries and general readers. [See Prepub Alert, 1/25/15.]--Charles K. Piehl, Minnesota State Univ., Mankato
Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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