Neither Snow Nor Rain
A History of the United States Postal Service
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
"[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
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Leonard, a staff writer at Bloomberg Businessweek, briskly and ably revisits the origins of the U.S. Postal Service and traces its myriad changes up into the 21st century. He covers the institution's major figures, including founder Benjamin Franklin, who introduced home delivery; President Benjamin Harrison, who first suggested the ideas of rural delivery and a postal bank (ideas that respectively came to fruition under the Theodore Roosevelt and Taft administrations); Anthony Comstock, a zealous anti-vice crusader; and Winston Blount, Nixon's postmaster general and the man who made jobs merit-based at the USPS, long a bastion of patronage. Of note are the chapter on the introduction of air delivery, which features anecdotes of the enormous risks early postal pilots took, Leonard's recounting of the short but devastating postal strike of 1970, and his examination of how the USPS has survived significant challenges from both private delivery companies and the growth of online bill-paying. What currently helps keep the USPS afloat is delivering about 40% of Amazon's packages. Readers may expect is an institutional history of a vast governmental organization (now a semi-private corporation) to be a bit dry, but Leonard is a sure-footed writer who has produced a well-researched work that uncovers some colorful characters and reflects basic dynamics of American democracy.
