Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse

By Richard R. John

Book Overview

In the seven decades from its establishment in 1775 to the commercialization of the electric telegraph in 1844, the American postal system spurred a communications revolution no less far-reaching than the subsequent revolutions associated with the telegraph, telephone, and computer. This book tells the story of that revolution and the challenge it posed for American business, politics, and cultural life. During the early republic, the postal system was widely hailed as one of the most important institutions of the day. No other institution had the capacity to transmit such a large volume of information on a regular basis over such an enormous geographical expanse. The stagecoaches and postriders who conveyed the mail were virtually synonymous with speed. In the United States, the unimpeded transmission of information has long been hailed as a positive good. In few other countries has informational mobility been such a cherished ideal. Richard John shows how postal policy can help explain this state of affairs. He discusses its influence on the development of such information-intensive institutions as the national market, the voluntary association, and the mass party. He traces its consequences for ordinary Americans, including women, blacks, and the poor. In a broader sense, he shows how the postal system worked to create a national society out of a loose union of confederated states. This exploration of the role of the postal system in American public life provides a fresh perspective not only on an important but neglected chapter in American history, but also on the origins of some of the most distinctive features of American life today.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674833384
• ISBN13: 9780674833388
• Release Date: November 1995
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 369 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Parallel btwn govt & early post office are remarkable

This book gives an inside view of how US government and indeed, the nation's first nationwide corporate entity, struggled with the combined pressures of politics & business 200 years ago. The problems USPS managers faced were remarkably "modern" as were the solutions remarkably "modern." Since I work with an agency that is similar in many respects to USPS, it was fascinating to see them crafting unique solutions in 1835 that we think are innovative in 1998. The book is "dry" in a way, but also very revealing to the persistent reader.