Neither Snow Nor Rain

A History of the United States Postal Service

Devin Leonard

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780802189974
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Social History
• Index: History

" [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

Table of contents

• Neither Snow Nor Rain
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Epigraphs
• Contents
• Prologue
• 1 The Founding Father
• 2 Interlopers I
• 3 Comstockery
• 4 A Businessman at the Post Office
• 5 Into the Sky
• 6 A Stamp Collector at the White House
• 7 Mount Semrow
• Photo Insert
• 8 The Day the Mail Stopped
• 9 Interlopers II
• 10 Going Postal
• 11 You’ve Got Mail!
• 12 “Thank God for Amazon”
• 13 “The Postal Service Is a Joke”
• 14 “The Whole Country Is in an Uproar!”
• Epilogue
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index
• Back Cover