Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse
Although it was published in 1995, Richard R. John's Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse remains a must-read in the media history academia. This book practically shaped today's academic research in this genre. For lots of countries today, with instant communication methods such as the internet or radio, we often view our government-run postal systems as only a section of our daily communication. However, before Samuel Morse commercialized the telegraph in the 1840s, the postal system was the public's only medium of information.
This book looks at the American postal system from its establishment in 1775 to the commercialization of the telegraph in 1844.
Through comprehensively using primary documents and official data, this book looks at the American postal system from its establishment in 1775 to the commercialization of the telegraph in 1844. John argues that, in these seven decades, the postal system became the primary backdrop for most American domestic affairs and the building of the American national identity. Because of the country's vast terrain and internal disagreements right after its establishment, this vast machine of the postal system employed 69.1% of all U.S. federal civilian officers in 1816 to operate public communication; in 1841, 79.2% of all federal civilian officers were postal officers.
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