Postal Service

What Killed Electric Mail Trucks?

Although the current Postmaster is a fine villain figure for environmentalists, the USPS's failure to move ahead with electric vehicles traces back to the agency's reorganization in the 1970s and restrictions placed on the postal service by Congress. 

The Past and Present of the U.S. Postal Service

Postal historian Philip Rubio joins The Takeaway to discuss new service standards that many fear will undermine the public standing of the Postal Service without meaningfully improving the agency's financial standing. 

Postal Historian Asks the PRC to Return the USPS to a Mission of Service

USPS historian Philip Rubio argues that the postal service must return to its mission of service and reject the "run it like a business" logic that has eroded public trust in the institution. 

How the U.S. Postal Service Forever Changed the West

Cameron Blevins's new book documents the role of the postal service in enabling the westward expansion of the United States and the conquest of Native American peoples. 

American Democracy Is in the Mail

by Daniel Carpenter

The Postal Service has been a circuit of information vital to democracy, a non-exclusionary employer, and a service connecting all communities in the nation. It's also been a tool of conquest and voracious capitalism. For good and ill, the history of the USPS is the history of America. 

Black Americans Worry Postal Changes Could Disrupt History Of Secure Jobs

Historian Philip Rubio comments on the historic importance of public employment, especially in the postal service, for Black Americans to avoid hiring discrimination and achieve economic security--gains threatened by plans to privatize the Post Office. 

How a Political Dispute Over the Early American Postal System Could Have Jeopardized the Whole U.S. Constitution

by Robert W.T. Martin

The nation has always depended on systems for sharing information and ideas. Disruptions to those systems can be devastating. Ask the Anti-Federalists. 

What Would Ben Franklin, Our First Postmaster General, Think Of Louis Dejoy?

Richard John, Joseph Adelman, Winifred Gallagher and Devin Leonard offer insight into how Ben Franklin committed to innovation and service improvement to build up the colonial postal service and how the service became an institution tying the new nation together. 

“The Post Office Has Always Been Political”

Postal historian Philip Rubio explains that the agency has never been completely separate from politics, though legislation passed in 1970 was supposed to cement the agency's independence. 

DeJoy to the World: The Mail Will Not Come

by Bill Dunlap

William Dunlap, a former Assistant Postmaster General who helped implement the 1970 Postal Reorganization Act, warns that the most serious cost of recent "reforms" may be to undermine public confidence in the Post Office as a non-political public service. 

“The Damage Has Been Done”: Historian Says Trump’s Postmaster Has Undermined Faith in 2020 Election

History professor Philip Rubio was a USPS mail carrier for 20 years. He believes that Postmaster DeJoy has "demoralized postal workers."

USPS Not Meant To Be A Revenue Generator But A 'Public Asset,' Says Historian (audio)

Postal historian Richard John says that the USPS is not a business and should be treated as a public resource.

Searching for America's 1930s Post Office Murals: A Photoessay

Photographer Justin Hamel is about a quarter of the way to photographing 1,200 New Deal-era murals in post offices across the United States.

Cutting Back the U.S. Postal Service would Hurt the Lifeblood of Democracy

by Richard R. John and Joseph Turow

Despite its impressive track record, the Postal Service has become a target for free market think tanks convinced that corporate America could run the USPS better than the government. 

The Politics of Postal Reform Have Always Been Part of USPS History

by Ryan Ellis

An excerpt from Ryan Ellis' book "Letters, Power Lines, and Other Dangerous Things: The Politics of Infrastructure Security."

How Trump’s Attack on the Post Office Could Backfire

If the USPS slows down, mail-in ballots won’t be the only collateral damage, says historian Philip Rubio.

Susan Collins Engineered the USPS Disaster She’s Now Protesting

Trump may be trying to sabotage the election, but the war against the Postal Service goes back decades.

Trump Is Hobbling the Mail the Old-fashioned Way

by Winifred Gallagher

If Republicans wanted to limit voter turnout and raise doubts about the election’s integrity, creating chaos within the Postal Service and undermining its independence would be an efficient way to pursue that goal.   

Trump’s Attack on the Postal Service Is a Threat to Democracy—and to Rural America

You’d think that the Republican Party, which depends on the undue weight given to rural voters for its continued political life, would be particularly solicitous of the post office. But, at the higher reaches, its ideological preoccupations are stronger: the post office is a government service, and therefore bad; it should be run instead by people who can make money from it.

You've Got No Mail

by Philip Rubio

Americans should not have to keep worrying about the attempted theft of our nation’s postal service.