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Description Field Ind Field Data
Leader LDR pam i 00
Control # 1 2020033035
Control # Id 3 DLC
Date 5 20230914201143.0
Fixed Data 8 200724s2021 nyuab b 001 0 eng
LC Card 10    $a 2020033035
ISBN 20    $a9780190053673$q(hardcover)
ISBN 20    $z9780190053697$q(epub)
Obsolete 39    $a327998$cTLC
Cat. Source 40    $aDLC$beng$erda$cDLC$dGCG
Authen. Ctr. 42    $apcc
Geog. Area 43    $an-usp--$an-us---
LC Call 50 00 $aHE6376.A1$bW476 2021
Dewey Class 82 00 $a383/.497809034$223
ME:Pers Name 100 $aBlevins, Cameron,$eauthor.
Title 245 10 $aPaper trails :$bthe U.S. Post and the making of the American West /$cCameron Blevins.
Tag 264 264  1 $aNew York, NY :$bOxford University Press,$c[2021]
Phys Descrpt 300    $ax, 232 pages :$billustrations, maps ;$c27 cm
Tag 336 336    $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
Tag 337 337    $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
Tag 338 338    $avolume$bnc$2rdacarrier
Note:Bibliog 504    $aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
Abstract 520    $a"A new history of the American state and its efforts to conquer, occupy, and integrate the western United States between the 1860s and early 1900s. The success of this project depended on an unassuming government institution: the U.S. Post. As millions of settlers rushed into remote corners of the region, they relied on the mail to stay connected to the wider world. Letters and newspapers, magazines and pamphlets, petitions and money orders, all travelled across the most expansive communications network on earth. Gossamer Network maps the year-by-year spread of this infrastructure using a dataset of more than 100,000 post offices, revealing a new and unfamiliar picture of the federal government in the West. Despite its size, the U.S. Post was both nimble and ephemeral, rapidly spinning out its infrastructure to distant places before melting away at a moment's notice. The administration of this network bore little resemblance to the civil service bureaucracies typically associated with government institutions today. Instead, the U.S. Post grafted public mail service onto the private operations of thousands of local businesses, contracting with stagecoach companies to carry bags of mail and paying local merchants to distribute letters from their stores. The postal network's sprawling geography and localized operations forces a reconsideration of the American state, its history, and the ways in which it exercised power. This book tells the story of one of the most dramatic reorganizations of people, land, and resources in American history and the underlying spatial circuitry that wove this project together."--$cProvided by publisher.
Note:Content 505 $aIntroduction: The Gossamer Network -- Geography and State Power -- Stories and Structures -- Postal Maps, 1860-1883 -- Mail Routes and the Costs of Expansion, 1866-1883 -- The Post Office Window, 1880-1892 -- Money Orders and National Integration, 1864-1895 -- Rural Free Delivery, 1896-1913 -- Conclusion: The Modern American State.
Subj:Topical 650  0 $aPostal service$zWest (U.S.)$xHistory$y19th century.
Subj:Geog. 651  0 $aUnited States$xTerritorial expansion.
Subj:Geog. 651  0 $aWest (U.S.)$xHistory.