Neither snow nor rain : a history of the United States Postal Service / Devin Leonard.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Leonard, Devin, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States Postal Service--History.

United States Postal Service.

Postal service--United States--History.

Postal service.

History.

United States.

Parcel post.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xviii, 316 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

History of the United States Postal Service

Place of Publication:

New York : Grove Press, [2016]

Summary:

Founded by Benjamin Franklin, USPS was the information network that bound far-flung Americans together, fostered a common culture, and helped American business to prosper. A first class stamp remains one of the greatest bargains of all time, and yet, the USPS is slowly vanishing. Critics say it is slow and archaic. Mail volume is down. The workforce is shrinking. Post offices are closing.This is a 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. An exciting and engrossing read, this is the first major history of the USPS in over fifty years.

Contents:

Prologue

The founding father

Interlopers I

Comstockery

A businessman at the Post Office

Into the sky

A stamp collector at the White House

Mount Semrow

The day the mail stopped

Interlopers II

Going postal

You've got mail!

"Thank God for Amazon"

Epilogue.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [265]-299) and index.

ISBN:

9780802124586

0802124585

OCLC:

923796021