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    How the Post Office Created America: A History
    How the Post Office Created America: A History
    How the Post Office Created America: A History
    Audiobook10 hours

    How the Post Office Created America: A History

    Written by Winifred Gallagher

    Narrated by Tavia Gilbert

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAscent Audio
    Release dateJul 1, 2016
    ISBN9781469034546
    How the Post Office Created America: A History
    Author

    Winifred Gallagher

    Winifred Gallagher’s books include House Thinking, Just the Way You Are (a New York Times Notable Book), Working on God, and The Power of Place. She has written for numerous publications, such as Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. She lives in Manhattan and Dubois, Wyoming.

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    Reviews for How the Post Office Created America

    3.5/5

    49 ratings10 reviews

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    • 3/5
      It began before the Revolution and was required to be proved for by the Constitution itself, the Post Office. How the Post Office Created America: A History by Winifred Gallagher covers the three-century plus long history of delivering the mail in America.Throughout Gallagher’s text she brought forth evidence to support her argument yet save for helping foster the airline industry the Post Office appeared to have more of a symbiotic relationship with the country. Gallagher’s historical narrative begins early in the 1700s and ends approximately in the early 2010s, through this three-century period the ups and downs of the post in America were chronicles and how it interacted with the establishment of other forms of communication. The fascinating information that was brought forth were the crisis of the 1840s that changed the Post Office for the next century and the “golden age” from 1890-1920. Gallagher’s highlighting of various Postmasters General that headed the department that either innovated services or helped it in its time of need. The book also highlights the main efforts that some have attempted to privatize the post instead of being a public service and in the Afterward Gallagher explains the three scenarios of the now USPS could head in the future.How the Post Office Created America is a look at the long history of the post in the United States and how it shaped and was shaped by the nation. Winifred Gallagher brought a lot of information to the text to support her argument, while I personally came away with a different conclusion based on the same it was an intriguing read.
    • 4/5
      After reading this book I clearly see that the creation of the US Postal Service really did lead the development of the USA. What a great way to review the history of the US. I have always loved getting letters and packages in the mail. I can now see how important it was for all folks in the rural and urban areas over time to stay connected via the mail. It was their lifeblood many times. I see the post office evolving now days and we can only hope that the changes will be for the benefit of our country overall!
    • 4/5
      A look at the history of the Post Office from its beginning to the present (2016). The history of the Post Office seems to always be very precarious. It never seems to be able to get the funding it needs, the cost of services do not cover the cost, Congress keeps interfering with it, and the Post Office also caused many of its problems.
    • 4/5
      This is a history of the United States Post Office, from its origins up through the present. (Or very nearly the present, anyway. The book was published in 2016, but, of course, more history is happening to the postal system even as we speak.) It does live up to its title, as it becomes very clear through this history that that Post Office has had a massive hand in shaping the evolution of America, from providing those planning the American Revolution a network of communications not dependent on mail service administered by the British, to creating roads all across the country, to encouraging the development of railroad and aviation, to exerting subtle influences on the shape of society.It's all fairly interesting (and occasionally genuinely surprising) information, although I have to say that I found the writing rather dry in places, especially in the early chapters, to the extent that I occasionally realized I'd zoned out a little and had to go back and re-read the last few paragraphs to see what I'd missed. I also can't help the feeling that the author buys in a little too readily to the colonialist myth of America as a country heroically wrested from a savage wilderness, or at least isn't willing to cast the critical eye on the idea that it deserves when it comes up. Which it frequently does.The last couple of chapters and the afterward, however, about the challenges and difficulties faced by the Postal Service in the last few decades and the uncertain prospects for its future -- complete with a succinct laying-out of the downsides of privatizing mail delivery -- are well-done and certainly feel very, very relevant at the moment.Rating: I'm going to give this a slightly stingy 3.5/5, but I'd say that it is worth reading right now, more than that mildly lukewarm rating might indicate.
    • 3/5
      I liked this book. I am surprised by how much I, an anti-government Libertarian, really appreciate the post office ever since taking a class on Stamp Collecting at Cub Scout camp. I miss having a PO Box when I was "forced" to go to the Post Office everyday to see the new stamps and what have you. Gallagher does a fairly decent job walking us through the history of the animal that is the Government/Business of the USPS. However from her writing it is very clear that she is a Northern Progressive with little respect for southern conservative folks. I doubt she even realizes that it comes across that way. She focuses a lot more on the first 150 years than the last 100, but she claims because there wasn't much to draw on. I'm glad that the US didn't try to get the Post to run the Internet as she claims would have been the natural progression. I couldn't imagine the cluster.Nothing to write-home about, pun intended, but interesting and worth the read regardless.
    • 4/5
      It is easy to just accept postal service as part of the foundation of US infrastructure, grumble when waiting in line for service to pick up a package or mail something requiring more than sticking on a stamp and dropping in the outgoing box. Winifred Gallager's book takes one back to the formation of the service, from the role it initially played gluing 13 disparate colonies into a new country, explains how it facilitated expansion of the country to it's current form and finally outlines some of the challenges it faces today in the face of electronic communication and other competing interests. It was particularly interesting to learn how some of the services that we just accept as normal--such as letter delivery in urban areas, came into existence--and the obstacles they had to overcome to be established. I highly recommend this book, and am now looking at today's USPS with more respect, but also the realization that as a citizen, we need to pay more attention to the next phases of evolution.
    • 3/5
      A light, but lively history of the postal service in America, from Colonial times when Ben Franklin ran things to now. Goes into the various crises that the Post Office has had in its history, along with the continual arguments on whether the Post Office should generate a profit...or is a public service that should be available to every American. It's clear which side the author supports, and they make a good case that the Post Office has been most successful when it expanded its service no matter the cost. And several industries, in what should be a familiar theme, rely on the public post to lower their operating costs. (FedEX and UPS in particular need the Post Office as a public utility.) Unfortunately, the Post Office as infrastructure was (and is) neglected by Washington, with predictable results.
    • 4/5
      Purchased as gift for my former postmaster mother, 30+ year USPS employee. A solid history of the service, at times devolves into 'here are some anecdotes' for a few chapters, but forgivable. Narrative is hard.
    • 4/5
      The much maligned US Postal Service is a $68.9B per year enterprise that handles 40% of the world's mail and charges the world's lowest rates. Despite it's /efficiency(and if you doubt that fact, try getting a package delivered in France), the American public persists in in thinking of it as a lumbering dinosaur that is obsolete in today's world of electronic communications. Those holding that view should read this book.Winifred Gallagher traces the founding of the US postal service from colonial days to the present and shows how the institution was an integral prt of the growth and settlement of the country. In fact the post office was established before the Declaration of Independence was signed as the founders recognized the need for reliable communications between the colonies.AFter independence was won, the post office was responsible for building roads for the mail to travel on. It also subsidized the railroads and early airline industry through it's contracts to carry the mail from one part of the country to another. It gave women and minorities meaningful employment opportunities before any other industry , and made the mail order business possible. At one point in the early 20th Century the US post office handled more mail than all the rest of the countries of the world combined!Unfortunately, the service did not keep up with it's success, refusing to spend the necessary funds to modernize it's equipment and it's distribution methods until there was a massive system meltdown in the 1970's (what most people remember of the USPS even today). Congress has been the system's worst enemy saddling the service with unrealistic labor expenses and hampering the implementation of cost saving measures.A the end of the book, the author shows how the postal service missed opportunity after opportunity to leverage the digital revolution to renewed success. And she outlines how the service could enhance the distribution of broadband services today to remain relevant to the country. It's hard to imagine any of her recommendations being implemented in today's political climate and that's too bad because the story of the post office is the story of a country that dared to do big things. It would be nice if we did so once again.
    • 3/5
      I have read and enjoyed a host of history based theses and publish-or-perish, but this one was excruciatingly banal. Apparently done with meticulous research, but the presentation was so sleep inducing, even if presented as a lecture by Narrator Jack it would not keep the reader engaged. But if points were to be given for the number of footnotes and references, it would be a winner.Whoever chose the title was really reaching, but missed.Received ebook copy free for review from NetGalley.