Neither snow nor rain
Subtitle: a history of the United States Postal Service
By: Devin Leonard
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Grove Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 316
ISBN-13: 9780802124586; 9780802189974
Subjects: Postal service; United States Postal Service; History
Other titles: History of the United States Postal Service
Description: 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 USPSs 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages [265]-299) and index.
Table of contents: title: Prologue; title: The founding father; title: Interlopers I; title: Comstockery; title: A businessman at the Post Office; title: Into the sky; title: A stamp collector at the White House; title: Mount Semrow; title: The day the mail stopped; title: Interlopers II; title: Going postal; title: You've got mail!; title: "Thank God for Amazon"; title: Epilogue.