Title
Paper Trails: The US Post and the Making of the American West,New
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A groundbreaking history of how the US Post made the nineteenthcentury American West.There were five times as many post offices in the United States in 1899 than there are McDonald's restaurants today. During an era of supposedly limited federal government, the United States operated the most expansive national postal system in the world.In this cuttingedge interpretation of the late nineteenthcentury United States, Cameron Blevins argues that the US Post wove together two of the era's defining projects: western expansion and the growth of state power. Between the 1860s and the early 1900s, the western United States underwent a truly dramatic reorganization of people, land, capital, and resources. It had taken AngloAmericans the better part of two hundred years to occupy the eastern half of the continent, yet they occupied the West within a single generation. As millions of settlers moved into the region, they relied on letters and newspapers, magazines and pamphlets, petitions and money orders to stay connected to the wider world.Paper Trails maps the spread of the US Post using a dataset of more than 100,000 post offices, revealing a new picture of the federal government in the West. The western postal network bore little resemblance to the civil service bureaucracies typically associated with government institutions. Instead, the US Post grafted public mail service onto private businesses, contracting with stagecoach companies to carry the mail and paying local merchants to distribute letters from their stores. These arrangements allowed the US Post to rapidly spin out a vast and ephemeral web of postal infrastructure to thousands of distant places.The postal network's sprawling geography and localized operations forces a reconsideration of the American state, its history, and the ways in which it exercised power.
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This product may contain chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm.
For more information, please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.
- Q: What is the main theme of 'Paper Trails: The US Post and the Making of the American West'? A: The book explores how the US Postal System played a crucial role in the western expansion of the United States during the nineteenth century, linking the growth of state power with the expansion of postal services.
- Q: Who is the author of this book? A: The author of 'Paper Trails' is Cameron Blevins.
- Q: What is the publication date of 'Paper Trails'? A: The book was published on April 1, 2021.
- Q: How many pages does 'Paper Trails' have? A: The book contains 248 pages.
- Q: What type of binding does this book have? A: This edition of 'Paper Trails' is a hardcover.
- Q: What is the condition of the book? A: The book is brand new.
- Q: In which category is 'Paper Trails' classified? A: The book is classified under the 'Civil War' category.
- Q: Does the book include any illustrations or images? A: The product details do not specify if there are illustrations or images included.
- Q: What are some key topics discussed in 'Paper Trails'? A: Key topics include the expansion of the postal network, the role of the US Post in connecting settlers, and the relationship between postal services and private businesses during westward expansion.
- Q: Is 'Paper Trails' suitable for academic research? A: Yes, the book provides a detailed historical analysis that can be valuable for academic research on the American West and postal history.