Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse

This book gives an inside view of how US government and indeed, the nation's first nationwide corporate entity, struggled with the combined pressures of politics & business 200 years ago. The problems USPS managers faced were remarkably "modern" as were the solutions remarkably "modern." Since I work with an agency that is similar in many respects to USPS, it was fascinating to see them crafting unique solutions in 1835 that we think are innovative in 1998. The book is "dry" in a way, but also very revealing to the persistent reader.