The Postal Age: The Emergence of Modern Communications in Nineteenth-Century America
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Book Overview
Americans commonly recognize television, e-mail, and instant messaging as agents of pervasive cultural change. But many of us may not realize that what we now call snail mail was once just as revolutionary. As David M. Henkin argues in The Postal Age, a burgeoning postal network initiated major cultural shifts during the nineteenth century, laying the foundation for the interconnectedness that now defines our ever-evolving world of telecommunications.
This fascinating history traces these shifts from their beginnings in the mid-1800s, when cheaper postage, mass literacy, and migration combined to make the long-established postal service a more integral and viable part of everyday life. With such dramatic events as the Civil War and the gold rush underscoring the importance and necessity of the post, a surprisingly broad range of Americans-male and female, black and white, native-born and immigrant-joined this postal network, regularly interacting with distant locales before the existence of telephones or even the widespread use of telegraphy. Drawing on original letters and diaries from the period, as well as public discussions of the expanding postal system, Henkin tells the story of how these Americans adjusted to a new world of long-distance correspondence, crowded post offices, junk mail, valentines, and dead letters. The Postal Age paints a vibrant picture of a society where possibilities proliferated for the kinds of personal and impersonal communications that we often associate with more recent historical periods. In doing so, it significantly increases our understanding of both antebellum America and our own chapter in the history of communications.Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0226327213
ISBN13:9780226327211
Release Date:October 2007
Publisher:University of Chicago Press
Length:238 Pages
Weight:0.76 lbs.
Dimensions:0.6" x 6.5" x 8.9"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
riveting!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 15 years ago
though i'm a history and media buff by trade, this book is appealing beyond a specific, academic audience. henkin's clear prose, grounded in a thorough understanding of his subject matter and an elegant and eloquent way with words makes this a fun and informative read for even the casually interested reader. virtually every page has me saying "whoa, cool!" and reading passages out loud to my partner. his trenchant analysis of the ways the mail developed over the course of the 19th-century combines the best of gender studies, race studies, visual and popular culture studies, and historical research. as the last reviewer said: it will change the way you think.
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