Download or read book How the Post Office Created America written by Winifred Gallagher and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-06-28 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Early History of the Post in Grant and Farm written by James Wilson Hyde and published by Legare Street Press. This book was released on 2023-07-18 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces the genesis and evolution of postal services in Grant and Farm, two rural communities in the American West, from the early 19th century to the present day. Hyde combines archival sources, official records, and personal interviews to reconstruct the social, economic, and political contexts in which the post played a vital role in connecting people, ideas, and goods. The book is a fascinating micro-history of a crucial institution that sheds light on the broader history of communication and mobility in 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.
Download or read book Masters of the Post written by Duncan Campbell-Smith and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2011-11-03 with total page 840 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The origins of the Post Office go back to the early years of the Tudor monarchy: Brian Tuke, a former King's Bailiff in Sandwich, was acknowledged as the first 'Master of the Posts' by Cardinal Wolsey in 1512, and went on to build up a network of 'postmasters' across England for Henry VIII. Over the following five hundred years the Royal Mail expanded to an unimaginable degree to become the largest employer in the country, and the face of the British state for most people in their everyday lives. But it also faced the demands of an increasingly commercial marketplace. With the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979, the possibility of privatising the Royal Mail has prompted passionate arguments - and has added immeasurably to the difficulties of running it. In charting the whole of this extraordinary story, Duncan Campbell-Smith recounts a series of remarkable tales, including how postal engineers built the first programmable computer for the wartime code-breakers of Bletchley Park and how the Royal Mail managed to successfully continue delivering post to the front lines during two world wars, but also how they failed to avert the Great Train Robbery of 1963. He brings to life many of the dominant personalities in the Royal Mail's history - from Rowland Hill, who imposed a uniform penny post and set the great Victorian expansion on its way, to Tony Benn who championed the modernisation of the service in the 1960s and Tom Jackson who led the postal workers' biggest union through fifteen frequently stormy years up to 1982. This is the first complete history of the Royal Mail up to the present day, based on its comprehensive archives, and including the first detailed account of the past half-century of Britain's postal history, made possible by privileged access to confidential records. Today's debate over the future of the Royal Mail is shown to be just the ;atest chapter in a centuries-old conflict between its roles raising revenue and serving the public. Will its employees remain, like Brian Tuke's postmasters, servants of the Crown? This book could hardly appear at a more timely moment.
Download or read book The Post Office in Ireland written by Stephen Ferguson and published by Merrion Press. This book was released on 2018-07-26 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first complete history of the Irish Post Office, an institution which has been at the heart of Irish life for over 300 years. It tells the story of how a small letter office grew into one of the greatest departments of State, influencing developments in areas of life which ranged from transport and communications to economics, technology and national identity. From the early days of postboys and packet ships to the introduction of the telegraph and telephone, the Post Office has played a vital role in communications, delivering mail to all parts of the island, maintaining precious links between Ireland and its emigrants, and representing, through the friendly face of a local postman or postmistress, an approachable facet of Government. Always a commercial enterprise as well as a public service, the Post Office has had to deal with the tensions that arise in that relationship and which today pose particularly serious challenges. At the heart of the book are the men and women whose fascinating stories and sympathetic characters have moulded the shape of the department and ensured its survival in the face of personal turmoil, rebellion and political intrigue. Drawing on much unpublished material, The Post Office in Ireland: An Illustrated History reveals an organisation that has been quietly influential in the development of Irish society and pays tribute to those who have faithfully served it. From letters and telegrams, to railways, radio and the GPO itself – this history of the Irish Post Office tells the story of our nation and its people in a unique and accessible way.
Download or read book The Early History of the Post in Grant and Farm written by James Wilson Hyde and published by . This book was released on 1894 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Early History of the Post in Grant and Farm written by James Wilson Hyde and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2019-12-19 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 'The Early History of the Post in Grant and Farm', author James Wilson Hyde offers a comprehensive and fascinating look at the establishment of the Post Office in Britain. Drawing from public records, original documents, and other authentic sources, Hyde not only provides a detailed account of the first forty years of the British postal services, but also sheds light on the men who built this great machine of public convenience and utility. From John Stanhope's patent in 1590 to the establishment of rival posts, this book uncovers the conflicts, controversies, and corruption that shaped the early history of the Post. Through the trials and tribulations of figures like William Frizell, Thomas Witherings, and Philip Burlamachi, Hyde presents a rich and compelling history of this indispensable institution.
Download or read book The American Postal Service written by Louis Melius and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2019-12-06 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The American Postal Service: History of the Postal Service from the Earliest Times" by Louis Melius is a comprehensive history of the USPS from its inception through the early years of the 20th century. Facts about this important branch of the government, the need for an efficient communication method, the English postal service, and more are all discussed to give readers a full-scop idea of just how essential postal workers and the mail system are to the country.
Download or read book Neither Snow Nor Rain written by Devin Leonard and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2016-05-03 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “[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
Download or read book The Early History of the Colonial Post Office written by Mary E. Woolley and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2018-04-05 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reproduktion des Originals: The Early History of the Colonial Post-Office von Mary E. Woolley
Download or read book The Early History of the Post written by J. Wilson Hyde and published by . This book was released on 1894 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book How the Post Office Created America written by Winifred Gallagher and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-07-04 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “’The history of its Post Office is nothing less than the story of America,’ Ms. Gallagher’s opening sentence declares, and in this lively book she makes the case well.”—Wall Street Journal 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.
Download or read book The Early History of the Colonial Post Office Classic Reprint written by Mary E. Woolley and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2016-09-16 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Early History of the Colonial Post-Office Until I639 there is no trace of a postal system, but under the Massachusetts General Court Records, of that year* (nov. Sth), is the following entry: For preventing the miscarriage of letters, It is ordered that notice bee given, that Rich ard Fairbanks, his house in Boston, is the place appointed for all letters, which are brought from beyond the Seas, or are to be sent thither are to be brought unto him and he is to take care, that they bee delivered, or sent according to their directions and hee is alowed for every such letter Ia'. And must answer all miscarriages through his owne neglect in this kind provided that no man shall bee compelled to bring his letters thither except hee please. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Download or read book Post History written by Vilém Flusser and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2015-07-31 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is there any room left for freedom in a programmed world? This is the essential question that Vilém Flusser asks in Post-History. Written as a series of lectures to be delivered at universities in Brazil, Israel, and France, it was subsequently developed as a book and published for the first time in Brazil in 1983. This first English translation of Post-History brings to an anglophone readership Flusser’s first critique of apparatus as the aesthetic, ethical, and epistemological model of present times. In his main argument, Flusser suggests that our times may be characterized by the term “program,” much in the same way that the seventeenth century is loosely characterized by the term “nature,” the eighteenth by “reason,” and the nineteenth by “progress.” In suggesting this shift in worldview, he then poses a provocative question: If I function within a predictable programmed reality, can I rebel and how can I do it? The answer comes swiftly: Only malfunctioning programs and apparatus allow for freedom. Throughout the twenty essays of Post-History, Flusser reminds us that any future theory of political resistance must consider this shift in worldview, together with the horrors that Western society has brought into realization because of it. Only then may we start to talk again about freedom.
Download or read book The Early History of the Colonial Post office written by Mary Emma Woolley and published by . This book was released on 1894 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The History of the Post Office from Its Establishment Down to 1836 written by Herbert Joyce and published by Double 9 Books. This book was released on 2024-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The History of the Post Office, from Its Establishment Down to 1836" by Herbert Joyce is a captivating exploration of postal history, chronicling the evolution of communication through postal services. This historical nonfiction work delves deep into the development of the postal system, examining its growth and transformation over time. Joyce meticulously traces the historical development of postal routes, mail transportation, and mail delivery methods, shedding light on the role of postmasters and the introduction of postage stamps. Through vivid descriptions and meticulous research, he brings to life the early postal networks and the challenges faced in establishing efficient mail communication. This authoritative account also delves into the significance of postal reforms in shaping the postal system, highlighting its impact on communication and societal development. From the establishment of early postal routes to the introduction of innovative delivery methods, Joyce's narrative offers valuable insights into the evolution of postal services up to the year 1836. With its blend of historical scholarship and engaging storytelling, "The History of the Post Office" serves as an indispensable resource for anyone interested in understanding the crucial role of postal services in shaping communication networks and fostering societal connections during this pivotal period in history.
Download or read book The History of the British Post Office written by J. C. Hemmeon and published by Read Books Ltd. This book was released on 2013-04-18 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1912, Hemmeon takes a detailed look at the history of the Post Office in Britain. Its 271 pages contain a wealth of information and anecdote which still proves of much interest today. Contents Include: The Postal Establishment supported directly by the state-Prior to 1635; The Postal Establishment a Source of Revenue to the State-1635-1711; The Postal Establishment an Instrument of Taxation-1711-1840; The Postal Establishment an Instrument of Popular Communication-Since 1840; The Travellers Post and Post Horses; Roads and Speed; Sailing Packets and Foreign Connections; Rates and Finance; The Question of Monopoly; The Telegraph System as a Branch of the Postal Department; The Post Office and the Telephone Companies; Conclusion; Expenditure and Revenue Tables; Bibliography; Index. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
