The Post Office Window, 1880–92

Paper Trails ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 94-118
Author(s):  
Cameron Blevins
Keyword(s):  
Post Office ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Agency Model ◽  
Post Offices ◽  
The Us ◽  
Political Patronage ◽  
History Of ◽  
Administrative Oversight ◽  
Potential Customers

Chapter 5 focuses on the role of post offices and postmasters in western towns during the 1880s. Small-town post offices exemplified the US Post’s localized agency model at work, offering a much different perspective on the history of the American state than a traditional bureaucratic framework. Post offices defined the spatial practices of local communities. Whoever housed the post office on their premises enjoyed a regular stream of potential customers into their place of business. This made postmaster appointments highly sought-after positions that provided the main source of political patronage for whichever party controlled the presidency. There was no clear division between public and private space in local post offices, as postmasters simultaneously ran stores, sold magazine subscriptions, and acted as agents for telegraph and express companies. Finally, the agency model meant that post offices operated with little administrative oversight and routinely frustrated attempts at centralized reform.

scholarly journals The fate of cultural and historical values of Russia at the crossroads of eras (1917-1927)

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 182-186
Author(s):  
Natalia Andreevna Tatarenkova
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Russian History ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Protection Policy ◽  
Cultural Workers ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Total Destruction ◽  
History Of

The paper deals with the problems of preserving objects of Russian history and culture in 1917-1927. The author analyzes contradictory processes in the cultural life of the Soviet state in the first post-revolutionary decade. Based on archival sources, she shows the activities of the departments for protection of art monuments and antiques, the role of creative intelligentsia in saving and museumification of cultural and historical values. For example, she describes the first state inventory of art and historical values, as well as realization difficulties of their protection policy in some provinces. There are also some wreck and ruin examples of nobilitys country estates. The author emphasizes the role of creative intelligentsia in saving and museumification of cultural values and characterizes some cultural workers of the designated era accentuating that they have corrected, to a certain extent, revolutionary nihilism of the authorities concerning the cultural heritage. Due to this fact, the 1920s became the Golden age in the history of museum business. During this period, public and private repositories replenished countrys museums with works of art and antiquities. The author concludes that the museumification of Church buildings and objects relating to divine worship was a way to save them for total destruction. The author uses new dates, gathered in the central and regional archives of Russian Federation.

Mail Routes and the Costs of Expansion, 1866–83

Paper Trails ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 75-93
Author(s):  
Cameron Blevins
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Post Office ◽  
Public Infrastructure ◽  
The West ◽  
Agency Model ◽  
Administrative Capacity ◽  
The Us

Chapter 4 examines the transportation of mail in the western United States. During the 1860s and 1870s the Post Office Department contracted with private stagecoach companies to carry the mail on its behalf, allowing it to extend mail routes across the region without establishing its own costly public infrastructure. Government mail contracts effectively subsidized the western stagecoach industry and facilitated the region’s breakneck growth during these decades. But staging companies began to lobby, collude, and bribe their way into exorbitant contracts worth millions of dollars, and by the end of the 1870s the situation had devolved into a full-fledged institutional crisis. This chapter is a story about mismanagement, fraud, and corruption, but it also speaks to the federal government’s lack of centralized administrative capacity. The decentralized agency model may have allowed the US Post to rapidly spread across the West, but this frenetic regional expansion project came with considerable costs.

scholarly journals Unwanted Conflict? The Analysis of the Impact of Misperception, Beliefs and Psychology of President Nasser at the Outbreak of the Six Day War

2019 ◽  
Vol 01 (02) ◽  
pp. 1950003
Author(s):  
Janko Šćepanović
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Structural Explanation ◽  
Defining Moments ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Six Day War ◽  
The Impact

The Six Day War was one of the most defining moments in the history of the Modern Middle East. This paper seeks to add to the existing scholarship on the subject by going beyond the structural explanation. It gives special attention to the role of unit-level variables like perception, personality, and political psychology of decision-makers. As one scholar noted, threats are not perceived in a vacuum, and are, instead, products of complex synthesis of subjective appraisal of events by the decision-makers. The focus will be on the beliefs and perceptions of the most impactful actor in this crisis: Egyptian President Nasser. As will be argued, his decision-making was shaped by his experience with foreign imperialism, a general misconception of super power intentions, an incorrect analogy between two crucial crisis situations with Israel: the February 1960 Rotem Crisis, and the build-up to the June War in 1967, and especially his complicated relations with the US leaders.

Immigration, Emigration, and Migration

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Legal Philosophy ◽  
Immigration Law ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
Legitimate Authority ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Migration ◽  
American Society

This volume presents chapters on the theme of borders and migration, written for the annual meetings of the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy. It features three lead chapters and a series of responses by other scholars drawn from the fields of law, political science, and philosophy. The volume thus brings together a range of perspectives—in both disciplinary and substantive terms—on the legitimacy of borders, the development and prospects of state sovereignty, and the role of national democracies in resolving international problems. The chapters also cover a number of more specific topics including the history of immigration law in the US, the creation of the universal postal union, and the sources of legitimate authority.

scholarly journals Family and personal medical history and risk of meningioma

2011 ◽  
Vol 115 (6) ◽  
pp. 1072-1077 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth B. Claus ◽  
Lisa Calvocoressi ◽  
Melissa L. Bondy ◽  
Joellen M. Schildkraut ◽  
Joseph L. Wiemels ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical History ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
San Francisco Bay Area ◽  
Primary Brain Tumor ◽  
Women Patients ◽  
Bay Area ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of ◽  
Age Range

Object Little is known about the epidemiology of meningioma, the most frequently reported primary brain tumor in the US. The authors undertook a case-control study to examine the relationship between family and personal medical history and meningioma risk. Methods The authors compared the personal and first-degree family histories of 1124 patients with meningioma (age range 20–79 years) in Connecticut, Massachusetts, North Carolina, the San Francisco Bay Area, and 8 Houston counties between May 1, 2006, and February 26, 2010, and the histories of 1000 control individuals who were frequency-matched for age, sex, and geography. Results The patients were more likely than the controls to report a first-degree family history of meningioma (OR 4.4, 95% CI 1.6–11.5), and there was an even stronger association in younger cases. The patients were less likely than controls to report immune conditions including allergy (OR 0.6, 95% CI 0.5–0.7) but were more likely to report a history of thyroid cancer (OR 4.7, 95% CI 1.02–21.5) or leukemia (OR 5.4, 95% CI 1.2–24.1) (most after radiotherapy). Among women, patients were more likely than controls to report hormonally related conditions—uterine fibroid tumors (OR 1.2, 95% CI 1.0–1.5), endometriosis (OR 1.5, 95% CI 1.5–2.1), and breast cancer (OR 1.4, 95% CI 0.8–2.3). Conclusions The influence of genetics, the immune system, and radiation near the head on meningioma risk is suggested in the authors' findings; the role of hormones is intriguing but requires further study.

scholarly journals Stosunki rosyjsko-irańskie w latach 2011–2019. Pragmatyczny sojusz czy trwałe partnerstwo?

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-59
Author(s):  
Andrzej Purat ◽  
Paweł Bielicki
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Religious Leader ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Impact

The main goal of our considerations is to analyse the most important conditions and dependencies that characterise Russian-Iranian relations from the beginning of the Arab Spring to the present day. We pay special attention to the infl uence of the United States on the development of diplomatic contacts between Moscow and Tehran and the conflict in Syria.Firstly, we describe the history of relations between the two countries after 1979 and the takeover of power by the religious leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, who, despite adopting an anti-Western course in international politics, did not show a desire to get closer to the Soviet neighbour. Secondly, we describe the relations of both countries from the collapse of the USSR to 2011, focusing on Iran’s role in influencing political processes in the post-Soviet area. Thirdly, we present the position of Russia and the Middle East about the war in Syria and the role of the Kurds. We also examine the impact of US policy on establishing links between Russia and Iran. Moreover, we raise economic issues and Moscow’s growing desire to dominate the Iranian economy and army.In the summary, we try to answer the question of what Russian-Iranian relations will look like in the future, especially in the era of the gradually ending war in Syria. Importantly, we refer to the issue of the US anti-Iranian rhetoric reinforced by Donald Trump and how it can influence the further strengthening of the Russia-Iran alliance.

Vying for credibility in the US Congress

Focaal ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 2005 (46) ◽  
pp. 67-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maya Ponte
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
The United States ◽  
Us Congress ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of ◽  
Images Of Science

Throughout the debate in the United States Congress over whether vaccines cause autism, legitimizing symbols that index cultural values have played a prominent role in the establishment of credibility. While both sides sanctify the role of science in producing credibility, they draw on different images of what science is and where its legitimacy stems from. Those who favor the vaccine hypothesis frame science as a populist endeavor, the results of which are open to critique by all. Those against the vaccine hypothesis frame science as an elitist endeavor, the results of which may only be critiqued by fellow scientists. While both of these images derive their significance from the cultural history of the United States, they have a markedly different impact on the interpretation of evidence. From within the populist frame, personal experience and direct observation are highly valued. From within the elitist frame, epidemiological evidence trumps personal experience. Due to the incorporation of dueling images of science, the US debate over autism may be viewed as a debate between rival cultural values.

Paper Trails

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cameron Blevins
Keyword(s):  
Federal Government ◽  
Western United States ◽  
The West ◽  
Post Offices ◽  
Communications Network ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mail Service ◽  
Government Institution ◽  
American State

Paper Trails presents 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 US 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 traveled across the most expansive communications network on earth. Paper Trails maps the year-by-year spread of this infrastructure using a dataset of more than one hundred thousand post offices, revealing a new and unfamiliar picture of the federal government in the West. Despite its size, the US 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 US 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 force 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.

Introduction

Paper Trails ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Cameron Blevins
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Spatial Analysis ◽  
Fast Moving ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Digital History ◽  
Post Offices ◽  
The Us ◽  
Postal Network ◽  
American State

How did the American state consolidate its power over the vast and remote territory of the western United States? This chapter orients readers to the period of western expansion spanning the 1860s to the early 1900s and the crucial, often unseen, role of the US Post within this project. It explains the book’s methodology of using a dataset of more than one hundred thousand post offices to map the spread of the western postal network, part of a larger approach of digital history. This spatial analysis leads to four findings about the US Post and its status as a “gossamer network”: that it was big, spatially expansive, fast moving, and ephemeral. The chapter then introduces the concept of the agency model, a new organizational framework for understanding the American state. It concludes with an overview of the book’s chapter structure, major themes, and narrative strategies.

Rural Free Delivery, 1896–1913

Paper Trails ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 140-156
Author(s):  
Cameron Blevins
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Post Office ◽  
Agency Model ◽  
The Us ◽  
Spatial Reorganization ◽  
Postal Network ◽  
Mail Service

In the 1890s and early 1900s, the Post Office Department launched an unprecedented spatial reorganization of its postal network: Rural Free Delivery, when mail carriers started delivering mail to the doorsteps of individual homes. Chapter 7 details the rollout of Rural Free Delivery, which was put into motion through an alliance between department administrators and agrarian reformers. This initiative triggered a spatial and administrative shift in the US Post, as it altered the geography of the network while ushering in a more recognizably modern bureaucracy made up of professional civil servants. But mapping the spread of the service reveals that Rural Free Delivery did not initially extend to the rural West. There, the older agency model would continue to define mail service well into the twentieth century.

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