ISBN: 978-0143130062
Here is how a conversation might have happened with the publisher and the author of this book, Winifred Gallagher:
Publisher: So we are looking for a top-notch academically researched piece on the United States Post Office and what you have submitted here looks good!Author: Awesome!Publisher: Just one thing though, we are gonna need you to cover the history of Black Americans in the US Postal service, and make sure to talk also about women.Author: Er..kay?Publisher: Look, in 2016 liberal bookstores and publishers want to hear about Black Americans and women because they are the oppressed despite Women's Lib, and despite the Civil War.Author: Well...okay...I think I can make that happen...
The short outcome, of that hypothetical conversation, is that Gallagher did do that, but she did it in such a way that it is distracting. There are easily three other books within this book, and the identity crisis shows. The two other books should respectively be African Americans in the US Postal System, and Women and Their Role In the US Postal System. Or, it might have been better to divide the subject into the US Postal System previous to 1940 and then 1940 going forward. Why? Because this book, while offering a lot of awesome history, seeks to beat you across the face with the other two works when the narrative format does not support these excursions. There are moments where it does--where Postmasters are being discussed broadly and the discussion of the first woman Postmaster makes perfect sense. There are other times where it is more like, "So now we are going to talk about women because we must." The change in focus is forced and unjustified. It makes the reading choppy and disconnected.
On the other hand, this book does an excellent job of showing how the early US Postal system was the glue that held the nation together when it came to educating citizens on the events of the day. There were those like Benjamin Franklin who figured out how to game the system and use their free franking privileges to make themselves wealthier. Of course, he also helped significantly improve the delivery of the mail by offering refinements to the postal system at large.
From these early origins we are ushered into the pre-Civil War US Postal System which is rough and tumble. Roads are in poor shape, and the job is dangerous in ways that directly imperil a person's life--whether that be through Native American attacks--or natural phenomena like rivers that are flooding or hard to cross. Oh yeah, there are also thieves on the journey, who like stealing mail because there might be something worth stealing since the mail is the main way things are sent--like money or even later the Hope Diamond. This is where the Pony Express exists, and it was, indeed, a dangerous job that advertised that it preferred orphans who would not be missed should they not make it back home. Far from deterring applicants, it seemed to embolden them.
At the point we find ourselves in the company of Andrew Jackson, we begin to understand something about the spoils system and how politics began to interleave itself into the mail system via governmental appointments which typically paid well and had the perk of retirement--especially as the system became more modern.
As we move forward into the Civil War, we find another gutting by Lincoln of the US Postal Service which, more or less, removed many people who had held on from the time of Jackson. In the meantime, trains are beginning to become a dominant force for faster delivery of mail, and are starting to replace the horse. Of course, there are not trains available everywhere, so the horse delivery system must be kept for those areas that lack any other kind of means of delivery. The trains begin to act more like private carriers, and in addition to their efforts to make money as kinds of postal businesses, there are other places who, like the Pony Express, try to discover an angle to either make money doing private deliveries with priority, or to be awarded contracts by the US government by becoming a part of the US Postal system.
As things start to head into the 1900's, we start seeing the effects of the Industrial Revolution and the turn toward mechanization. The Postal Service becomes behind the times due to infighting in the government about who can deliver what, and when. Everyone is after the money aspect of the situation, and no one wants to fund changes that are necessary to keep the system functional for contemporary usage. Everyone is depending, however, on the mail to run. Pulp kinds of books and magazines have specific rates that the publishers do not want to see change. Some of these are political newspapers, and some, according to the book, are little better than smut.
Eventually we are aloft in the air and we are introduced to the pilots who risk the early dangers of aviation that perform feats that would still be risky today with modern planes. We find ourselves, by the Great Depression, surrounded by some barnstormer pilots, and a postal system on the brink of collapse which causes New Deal economic forces to start construction programs on Post Office buildings. Fixing the Post Office up as a kind of cultural heritage of a region becomes the new reinvigoration though there still are massive problems with regard to labor forces and how the government can deal with a system that must run and yet is being simultaneously crippled.
It is around this juncture that another hypothetical conversation must have happened:
Publisher: You really, really need to focus on MORE women and MORE Black Americans! Turn the knob up from about a 3 to something like a 7!Author: Okay, I think I can do that!
The author yanks off the knob and cranks the effort up to a 12, fearing the publishing contract will be nullified if the black/woman quota is not met.
So, naturally, there are many more references to black men and women in general in the more modern US Postal Service. At this point, a time-traveler arrives from the year 2025 and shakes the author by the shoulders and utters one word and only one word: FATIGUE!
The rest of the book, on a less flippant note, takes us right on up to the 60's and 70's where mail stops being delivered and Postal Workers begin to strike because they have had enough. Nixon, we discover, adopts the eagle as the US Postal logo in part because the horse used before as the symbol was hard to recognize. We learn about a system introduced in the 40's that goes extinct in the 60's which is a successful parallel US banking system which is run through the Post Office. Also, mechanization begins to assert an ever-increasingly more powerful grip on how the mail is run.
We take some forays into stamps and their value, and how collectors can get mad when the government does not let them purchase stamps they think will be valuable. We learn also, that releasing stamps of events is kind-of-a-big-deal and if it they commemorate someone in the modern time, it is usually the case they are dead since if they are still alive they can screw up their reputation in a way that reflects negatively on the Post Office.
What shines throughout the work, and invites comparison, is how the development of the internet mirrors closely that of the US Post Office. From centralized hubs, to the eventual hub and spoke systems, every kind of network architecture is discussed with regard to the postal system. The book concludes with the statement that the US Postal System failed to see the impact that the internet would have on mail and the US Postal System in general, and that failure was not for want of Postmasters who understood what was going to happen. Though the book does not say it, it is probably the case that many understood the problem, but who wanted to again assume the cost of changing the postal system? While the amount of letters may have dropped, the text notes that the increase in packages from shopping is sharply up. It turns out that to get goods from digital shopping, you still need someone to saddle up their horse, and actually take the package to the customer. Who knew?
It is toward the end of this book that I suspect the new book idea emerges as a conversation between author and publisher:
Publisher: All right, you got plenty of black people in there, and great job on the women. It reads smooth as butter. We need you to release a new book though. What we are thinking, and we are just spit-balling here, is that maybe you can cover the gay-trans-vampire contribution to the US Postal System. That, and people who identify as furries. Can you work that into a narrative on the history of the US Postal Service?Author: Well, that is going to be difficult, but I suppose I could just always transition with the subtext of "Furries who never failed," or "How Edward glittered his way into my mailbox even though I don't know what pronouns to use."Publisher: Great, GREAT! I'm looking forward to it! Send it along when you work it up!
Rest assured, if this happens, thebooklight will review the copy, mercilessly.
Note: The full, original article can be read over at thebooklight.