How the Post Office Created America: A History

This fascinating narrative history of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) describes the political and technological challenges the agency faced while trying to deliver mail to an expanding nation. Gallagher (New: Understanding Our Need for Novelty and Change) shows that throughout its history, factors such as a dependence on congressional budgets and both executive-branch action and inaction along with a cumbersome patronage system have kept the USPS from fully controlling its own services. The agency frequently attempted to use technological innovation, including vast rail, road, and air systems, to deliver communications quickly and efficiently. Resistance from the private sector prevented or delayed many improvements such as attempts to integrate telegraphy and computerization or the establishment of postal savings banks. These frustrations lasted throughout the 20th century. Despite setbacks, the system continued to update with the times, although never as rapidly as critics would have liked. Gallagher contends that criticism should often be directed at those outside the USPS.