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Neither Snow nor Rain: A History of the United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is a wondrous American creation. Seven days a week, its army of 300,000 letter carriers delivers 513 million pieces of mail, forty percent of the world’s volume. It is far more efficient than any other mail service—more than twice as efficient as the Japanese and easily outpacing the Germans and British. And the USPS has a storied history. Founded by Benjamin Franklin, it was the information network that bound far-flung Americans together, fostered a common culture, and helped American business to prosper. A first class stamp remains one of the greatest bargains of all time, and yet, the USPS is slowly vanishing. Critics say it is slow and archaic. Mail volume is down. The workforce is shrinking. Post offices are closing.
In Neither Snow Nor Rain , journalist Devin Leonard tackles the fascinating, centuries-long history of the USPS, from the first letter carriers through Franklin’s days, when postmasters worked out of their homes and post roads cut new paths through the wilderness. Under Andrew Jackson, the post office was molded into a vast patronage machine, and by the 1870s, over seventy percent of federal employees were postal workers. As the country boomed, USPS aggressively developed new technology, from mobile post offices on railroads and air mail service to mechanical sorting machines and optical character readers.
Neither Snow Nor Rain is a rich, multifaceted history, full of remarkable characters, from the stamp-collecting FDR, to the revolutionaries who challenged USPS’s monopoly on mail, to the renegade union members who brought the system—and the country—to a halt in the 1970s. An exciting and engrossing read, Neither Snow Nor Rain is the first major history of the USPS in over fifty years.
In Neither Snow Nor Rain , journalist Devin Leonard tackles the fascinating, centuries-long history of the USPS, from the first letter carriers through Franklin’s days, when postmasters worked out of their homes and post roads cut new paths through the wilderness. Under Andrew Jackson, the post office was molded into a vast patronage machine, and by the 1870s, over seventy percent of federal employees were postal workers. As the country boomed, USPS aggressively developed new technology, from mobile post offices on railroads and air mail service to mechanical sorting machines and optical character readers.
Neither Snow Nor Rain is a rich, multifaceted history, full of remarkable characters, from the stamp-collecting FDR, to the revolutionaries who challenged USPS’s monopoly on mail, to the renegade union members who brought the system—and the country—to a halt in the 1970s. An exciting and engrossing read, Neither Snow Nor Rain is the first major history of the USPS in over fifty years.
316 pages, Hardcover
First published May 3, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 152 reviews
February 2, 2017
The post office is an incredible institution & this book shows that very well. They're so pervasive that we rarely think of them & their constant struggle to deliver billions (yes, with a B) of pieces of mail so regularly save when there is a problem. The economy of scale that they need to deal with, along with Congressional oversight, public perception, & union issues are staggering. Post Master General has to be the most thankless job in existence.
The history of this institution starting with its roots as a British service was fascinating. A lot of characters dealing with horrible transportation issues that had to be overcome to tie our country together. Leonard did a great job of showing that. Examples ranged from delivering mail to CA during the Gold Rush to how rural home delivery helped when it started less than a century ago.
The Postal Service has its tarnished spots, too. Leonard gets into where the service has failed with political cronyism, censorship, & its monopolistic powers backed by its own police force. The censorship was horrifying, a terrible abuse.
The book bogged down in the 60s through the 90s, but that might have just been for me. I started zoning out. It's a mess & a shame, but I wonder if it could have been any better. It's a complicated mess. Economically, the Post Office needed to keep its monopoly while also developing technology to deal with its ever increasing & changing loads, but they were hamstrung by Congress, private companies, & powerful unions.
The Postal Service is one of the basic services of our country & is extremely democratic. A penthouse in the city gets the same delivery as a shack in the country. That's super important. Most people don't understand just how frustrating & limiting lack of services can be since FDR & the New Deal changed this back in the 1930s. While we got electric & phone service, water & Internet are iffy. There is no high speed Internet in my area. Luckily, I have it at work, but many of my neighbors just don't bother. It's a PITA. (Inability to fill out forms, accounts locked, or pages that won't load.) Thankfully we also have great rural carriers & we're generally friendly with them. Yes, they still get Xmas cards & gifts from us, too.
I highly recommend this to everyone since the USPS is still struggling & will always struggle. While I'm all for private companies & capitalism,we all need to realize just how important an agnostic, public service is.
The history of this institution starting with its roots as a British service was fascinating. A lot of characters dealing with horrible transportation issues that had to be overcome to tie our country together. Leonard did a great job of showing that. Examples ranged from delivering mail to CA during the Gold Rush to how rural home delivery helped when it started less than a century ago.
The Postal Service has its tarnished spots, too. Leonard gets into where the service has failed with political cronyism, censorship, & its monopolistic powers backed by its own police force. The censorship was horrifying, a terrible abuse.
The book bogged down in the 60s through the 90s, but that might have just been for me. I started zoning out. It's a mess & a shame, but I wonder if it could have been any better. It's a complicated mess. Economically, the Post Office needed to keep its monopoly while also developing technology to deal with its ever increasing & changing loads, but they were hamstrung by Congress, private companies, & powerful unions.
The Postal Service is one of the basic services of our country & is extremely democratic. A penthouse in the city gets the same delivery as a shack in the country. That's super important. Most people don't understand just how frustrating & limiting lack of services can be since FDR & the New Deal changed this back in the 1930s. While we got electric & phone service, water & Internet are iffy. There is no high speed Internet in my area. Luckily, I have it at work, but many of my neighbors just don't bother. It's a PITA. (Inability to fill out forms, accounts locked, or pages that won't load.) Thankfully we also have great rural carriers & we're generally friendly with them. Yes, they still get Xmas cards & gifts from us, too.
I highly recommend this to everyone since the USPS is still struggling & will always struggle. While I'm all for private companies & capitalism,we all need to realize just how important an agnostic, public service is.
December 30, 2025
"'There are a number of of reasons why the United States did not become the dis-United States, and why we did not evolve into the North American Balkans. There are many factors that combined and unified America. The process was carried on silently, almost in secret, underneath the temporary upheavals in our history. It moved by a chain of paper that transported the elements of Americanism through thousands of miles, across mountains and desert, from city to frontier, a chain stretching into every clearing and valley. This link consisted of the postal service and the publications that provided a common store of images, of heroes, of folklore, of truth, and of inspiration and ideals.'" -- U.S. postmaster general Lawrence O'Brien (serving 1965-1968), as quoted in the prologue
Author Leonard only has one book to his credit, and that's sort of a shame - based on this offering Neither Snow nor Rain: A History of the United States Postal Service he seems sort of natural to share shelf space with contemporary history writers such as Matthew Algeo, Tom Clavin, and Bob Drury. While not (nor meant to be) and exhaustive or excessively detailed overview of the 'USPS' - although it has only held that moniker since 1971, being formerly / officially known as the 'U.S. Post Office Department' since its inception in 1792 - his book is an informative and non-partisan look at one of the longest-existing government agencies. Proceeding in chronological order, Leonard traces the early days when inaugural postmaster general Ben Franklin (yes, THAT founding father) headed the newly-formed office after years in charge of Philadelphia's mail service, and travels throughout the highs and lows, successes and failures, of the civil service-based organization over the next 200+ years. Interspersed between the occasional trivia - did you know such future U.S. household names Abraham Lincoln, Harry Truman, Walt Disney, William Faulkner, and Rock Hudson were all employed in the postal service early in their careers? - were some really good chapters detailing many notable aspects, changes, and/or evolvements in how the agency carried out its responsibilities. There were also sobering sections - the genesis of the late 20th century expression 'going postal' is examined in an appropriate earnest tone, coupled with the detailing the absolutely horrific USPS workplace shootings; and also the Great Postal Strike of 1970 - but generally the narrative maintains a medium sort of tone and tempo. Additionally, author Leonard also debunks a long-held misconception - the postal service does not have an official motto (as referenced in the book's title), but the "neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" quote by Professor G.H. Palmer has been prominently displayed on a New York City post office entrance since 1914, and became entrenched in the hearts and minds of many Americans.
Author Leonard only has one book to his credit, and that's sort of a shame - based on this offering Neither Snow nor Rain: A History of the United States Postal Service he seems sort of natural to share shelf space with contemporary history writers such as Matthew Algeo, Tom Clavin, and Bob Drury. While not (nor meant to be) and exhaustive or excessively detailed overview of the 'USPS' - although it has only held that moniker since 1971, being formerly / officially known as the 'U.S. Post Office Department' since its inception in 1792 - his book is an informative and non-partisan look at one of the longest-existing government agencies. Proceeding in chronological order, Leonard traces the early days when inaugural postmaster general Ben Franklin (yes, THAT founding father) headed the newly-formed office after years in charge of Philadelphia's mail service, and travels throughout the highs and lows, successes and failures, of the civil service-based organization over the next 200+ years. Interspersed between the occasional trivia - did you know such future U.S. household names Abraham Lincoln, Harry Truman, Walt Disney, William Faulkner, and Rock Hudson were all employed in the postal service early in their careers? - were some really good chapters detailing many notable aspects, changes, and/or evolvements in how the agency carried out its responsibilities. There were also sobering sections - the genesis of the late 20th century expression 'going postal' is examined in an appropriate earnest tone, coupled with the detailing the absolutely horrific USPS workplace shootings; and also the Great Postal Strike of 1970 - but generally the narrative maintains a medium sort of tone and tempo. Additionally, author Leonard also debunks a long-held misconception - the postal service does not have an official motto (as referenced in the book's title), but the "neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" quote by Professor G.H. Palmer has been prominently displayed on a New York City post office entrance since 1914, and became entrenched in the hearts and minds of many Americans.
February 27, 2019
Of course, I have a biased connection to this historical and remarkable organization, since I have been a mail-carrier for over 32 years. I am still glad I read it and actually learned a lot, from this well-researched single volume. I salute Benjamin Franklin, our postal Godfather. The postal service also developed some game-changing technology over the years, that it rarely gets credit for. If you have any interest in the U.S.P.S or just curious what a mail-carrier does, day in, day out, give this book a shot. I also got a kick out of this new to me factoid:
"In February 1914, the Pierstorffs of Grangeville, Idaho, sent their five-year-old daughter to visit her grandmother 75 miles away in Lewiston via parcel post, because it was cheaper than buying her a train ticket. Little May Pierstorff weighed 48 pounds, which meant that she was just under the Post Office Department’s 50-pound limit for parcels. The Grangeville postmaster charged her parents 53 cents, attaching the appropriate stamps to the front of her coat. May traveled all the way to Lewiston in a railway baggage car under the watchful eye of a railway mail clerk. When she arrived, a mail clerk on duty drove her to her grandmother’s house rather than leaving her at the post office for morning delivery. Soon there were more incidents of “child mailing,” and finally the Post Office Department outlawed the practice.”
"In February 1914, the Pierstorffs of Grangeville, Idaho, sent their five-year-old daughter to visit her grandmother 75 miles away in Lewiston via parcel post, because it was cheaper than buying her a train ticket. Little May Pierstorff weighed 48 pounds, which meant that she was just under the Post Office Department’s 50-pound limit for parcels. The Grangeville postmaster charged her parents 53 cents, attaching the appropriate stamps to the front of her coat. May traveled all the way to Lewiston in a railway baggage car under the watchful eye of a railway mail clerk. When she arrived, a mail clerk on duty drove her to her grandmother’s house rather than leaving her at the post office for morning delivery. Soon there were more incidents of “child mailing,” and finally the Post Office Department outlawed the practice.”
February 10, 2016
Years ago, before I had a blog, I had great fun with mail art, submitting work to mail art calls, and corresponding with several mail artists. Then my hiatus from work ended, and I had less time or energy for this entertaining hobby. A couple of months ago, almost accidentally, my interest in mail art and snail mail found new impetus, and I began to increase the number of letters I was writing and to begin making and decorating envelopes and postcards.
In the serendipitous way of things, NetGalley recently offered Neither Snow Nor Rain, and I thought it would be interesting to learn a little about the postal service that we all take for granted.
That I would find this book so entertaining, so funny and fascinating, and in the final sections, so somber--came as a surprise.
The history of the U.S. Postal Service, its origins in England, letters without envelopes (any extra sheet of paper increased the price), the American postmasters from Ben Franklin through the present, the Pony Express, the battles with private carriers, the introduction of stamps, the innovations with railroads and rail mail, the danger of early air mail, the almost incomprehensible volume of mail handled, and so much more are written about in a way that is not only educational, but compelling.
Tidbits:
"The U.S. Postal Service is a wondrous American creation. Six days a week, its army of 300,000 letter carriers deliver 513 million pieces of mail [a week, yall!]], 40 percent of the world's total volume. In parts of America that it can't reach by truck, the USPS finds other means to get people their letters and packages. It transports them by mule train to the Havasupai Indian Reservation at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Bush pilots fly letters to the edges of Alaska. In thinly populated parts of Montana and North Dakota, the postal service has what it refers to as "shirt pocket"routes, which means the postal workers literally carry all their letters for the day in their shirt pockets. At a time when the USPS is losing several billion letters a year to the Internet, it still has to do this six days a week because it is legally required to provide universal service to every American home and business."
"Long before Abraham Lincoln was president of the United States, he was the postmaster of New Salem, Illinois. Harry Truman held the title of postmaster of Grandview, Missouri. Walt Disney was a substitute carrier in Chicago. Bing Crosby was a clerk in Spokane, Washington. Rock Hudson delivered mail in Winnetka, Illinois." And William Faulkner was fired from his post at the University of Mississippi.
Montgomery Blair was postmaster general under Abraham Lincoln. In 1863, Blair started free home delivery and city residents had their mail delivered twice a day. Blair also instituted railway mail service and had clerks ride trains, sorting letters as the went. "The Railway Mail Service became an elite operation within the Post Office Department. Clerks who rode the rails threw bags of letters from speeding trains and grabbed incoming ones with hooks. They memorized as many as 4,000 post office addresses in order to sort the mail faster."
Mark Twain couldn't recall an address and wrote: "For Mr. C.M. Underhill, who is in the coal business in one of those streets there, and is very respectably connected, both by marriage & general descent, and is a tall man & old but without any gray hair & used to be handsome. Buffalo N.Y. From Mark Twain. P.S. A little bald on the top of his head."
Mr. Underhill received his letter.
OK-- this always happens when I read good nonfiction, I highlight almost every other page.
As the book drew to a close, however, it became evident that the history of the USPS may be near its end. Junk mail is now the majority of the mail handled and delivered.
Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe, who retired in 2015, said that the bottom line is "With the exception of the holidays and your birthday, think about your own mailbox. When was the last time you got a piece of mail that had a stamp on it? You don't get it."
We pay our bills online, we sent texts and emails. We appreciate the ease and convenience of these technologies. But do we want to do without the postal service? A friend said that she just expects the mail to be there. So do I. It has always been there.
When I decided to participate in A Month of Letters (the challenge of sending something in the mail each day) none of this was on my mind. Synchronicity, serendipity, that strange coincidental kind of thing happened to make this book available at a time when I was in the mood to genuinely appreciate it. Mr. Leonard has done an outstanding job.
And I thoroughly enjoyed it...right up until the end. The prospect of the demise of the USPS saddens me.
NetGalley/Grove Atlantic
Nonfiction/History. April 5, 2016. Print length: 288 pages.
In the serendipitous way of things, NetGalley recently offered Neither Snow Nor Rain, and I thought it would be interesting to learn a little about the postal service that we all take for granted.
That I would find this book so entertaining, so funny and fascinating, and in the final sections, so somber--came as a surprise.
The history of the U.S. Postal Service, its origins in England, letters without envelopes (any extra sheet of paper increased the price), the American postmasters from Ben Franklin through the present, the Pony Express, the battles with private carriers, the introduction of stamps, the innovations with railroads and rail mail, the danger of early air mail, the almost incomprehensible volume of mail handled, and so much more are written about in a way that is not only educational, but compelling.
Tidbits:
"The U.S. Postal Service is a wondrous American creation. Six days a week, its army of 300,000 letter carriers deliver 513 million pieces of mail [a week, yall!]], 40 percent of the world's total volume. In parts of America that it can't reach by truck, the USPS finds other means to get people their letters and packages. It transports them by mule train to the Havasupai Indian Reservation at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Bush pilots fly letters to the edges of Alaska. In thinly populated parts of Montana and North Dakota, the postal service has what it refers to as "shirt pocket"routes, which means the postal workers literally carry all their letters for the day in their shirt pockets. At a time when the USPS is losing several billion letters a year to the Internet, it still has to do this six days a week because it is legally required to provide universal service to every American home and business."
"Long before Abraham Lincoln was president of the United States, he was the postmaster of New Salem, Illinois. Harry Truman held the title of postmaster of Grandview, Missouri. Walt Disney was a substitute carrier in Chicago. Bing Crosby was a clerk in Spokane, Washington. Rock Hudson delivered mail in Winnetka, Illinois." And William Faulkner was fired from his post at the University of Mississippi.
Montgomery Blair was postmaster general under Abraham Lincoln. In 1863, Blair started free home delivery and city residents had their mail delivered twice a day. Blair also instituted railway mail service and had clerks ride trains, sorting letters as the went. "The Railway Mail Service became an elite operation within the Post Office Department. Clerks who rode the rails threw bags of letters from speeding trains and grabbed incoming ones with hooks. They memorized as many as 4,000 post office addresses in order to sort the mail faster."
Mark Twain couldn't recall an address and wrote: "For Mr. C.M. Underhill, who is in the coal business in one of those streets there, and is very respectably connected, both by marriage & general descent, and is a tall man & old but without any gray hair & used to be handsome. Buffalo N.Y. From Mark Twain. P.S. A little bald on the top of his head."
Mr. Underhill received his letter.
OK-- this always happens when I read good nonfiction, I highlight almost every other page.
As the book drew to a close, however, it became evident that the history of the USPS may be near its end. Junk mail is now the majority of the mail handled and delivered.
Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe, who retired in 2015, said that the bottom line is "With the exception of the holidays and your birthday, think about your own mailbox. When was the last time you got a piece of mail that had a stamp on it? You don't get it."
We pay our bills online, we sent texts and emails. We appreciate the ease and convenience of these technologies. But do we want to do without the postal service? A friend said that she just expects the mail to be there. So do I. It has always been there.
When I decided to participate in A Month of Letters (the challenge of sending something in the mail each day) none of this was on my mind. Synchronicity, serendipity, that strange coincidental kind of thing happened to make this book available at a time when I was in the mood to genuinely appreciate it. Mr. Leonard has done an outstanding job.
And I thoroughly enjoyed it...right up until the end. The prospect of the demise of the USPS saddens me.
NetGalley/Grove Atlantic
Nonfiction/History. April 5, 2016. Print length: 288 pages.
February 6, 2022
Definitely enjoyed this book once I committed to sitting down and reading it (changing my rating from a 3-star to a 4-star as I progressed). There was so much I did not know about the post office, even with having both parents work there, one for 15 years.
Arranged chronologically, the book starts with the founding of the American form of the Post Office under Benjamin Franklin as a measure of equality among people and a way to be united colonies. Several chapters focus on how the post office and transportation developed hand-in-hand, such as with automobile, train, air, and electronic delivery. Halfway through the book, the author highlights stamp collecting by focusing on FDR's hobby and reform efforts during his presidency including designing architecturally beautiful buildings and commissioning artist to produce murals for display in them. There are even chapters about major strikes, "going postal," and the integration of e-commerce.
Arranged chronologically, the book starts with the founding of the American form of the Post Office under Benjamin Franklin as a measure of equality among people and a way to be united colonies. Several chapters focus on how the post office and transportation developed hand-in-hand, such as with automobile, train, air, and electronic delivery. Halfway through the book, the author highlights stamp collecting by focusing on FDR's hobby and reform efforts during his presidency including designing architecturally beautiful buildings and commissioning artist to produce murals for display in them. There are even chapters about major strikes, "going postal," and the integration of e-commerce.
July 30, 2016
I enjoyed reading about the history of the USPS. I'm old-fashioned in that I pay all my bills by mail. I drive to the main post office to mail all my outgoing mail inside the post office. I check my mailbox six days a week. I'm thrilled that the USPS delivers Amazon packages on Sundays. Here in Grass Valley, CA, our postal workers inside the main post office are friendly, helpful people. I'm a long-time fan of the USPS.
September 24, 2017
Very, very interesting. Did you know that the price of sending a letter in Ben Franklin's day was 6¢ and that was for one sheet of paper but if you wanted it to go further than 25 miles, the cost was doubled.
Did you know, in the 1840s, a child was mailed from her parents house to Grandma's house 50 miles away? It was cheaper than a train ticket. That started a trend that was ultimately outlawed.
A lot of interesting tidbits. I really enjoyed it.
Did you know, in the 1840s, a child was mailed from her parents house to Grandma's house 50 miles away? It was cheaper than a train ticket. That started a trend that was ultimately outlawed.
A lot of interesting tidbits. I really enjoyed it.
November 18, 2024
These folks really are the backbone of America
March 13, 2016
Well what we have here is a good, honest, easy-readin', overview-level pop-history of the US Mail system! Which doesn’t sound special, however it becomes more interesting when you find out (as far as I can tell in Worldcat) that the last time a overview level popular history of the US Mail was written by someone other than the USPS was in 1987. (The USPS however employs their own historian with staff, and maintains their own Smithsonian museum, so it’s not like their history output is low.) The two strongest parts of the book that you wouldn’t be likely to find in an official history of the USPS are its critical coverage of the Comstock Era and the rash of postal shootings in the 80s and 90s. The “Going Postal” section is a really impressively fair treatment, saying both “you give your business mandatory preferential hiring to a set of veterans with little to no mental health support and you see what happens” while also being very critical of the USPS bureaucracy's lack of response to pleas for help from postmasters prior to these shootings.
The coverage of the 1970 postal strike was also very refreshing, and makes a good argument for why these strikes were both justified and likely entirely necessary for the postal employees of that period to enact any change in their status. Consider, a New York City mail carrier earned less than a New York City garbage man of that year, worked longer hours, and lack of efficient implementation of mail sorting technology meant that most mail in the country was still sorted by hand, which required a lot of training and practice, when the Post Office had had sorting machines and OCR technology for years. I’d strike too.
There’s a few things I’d have liked to see more of, like more Rocketeers with their pneumatic tubes, and I’d have really liked more stuff about the importance of postal employment to the rise of the Black middle class (although this was likely skipped due to being very recently covered in There's Always Work at the Post Office: African American Postal Workers and the Fight for Jobs, Justice, and Equality.) In addition the book still follows a bit too much Great Man style, giving you the names and important work of every last postmaster general from Ben Franklin down, yet not much from the little people who used the mail or trodded around in the mud delivering it. But it’s an overview level book, so these things are to be expected.
If nothing else this book is important for its somewhat awkward placement in history, because it comes at a pivotal time in the institution of the mail: as of the last USPS report first class mail volume has dropped to an all-time low where it will either continue to drop or plateau off, while the volume of packages and parcels the mail is carrying is continuing to rise in tandem with their unexpected new best friend, Amazon.com. USPS technology and procedures are optimized for “flats” and not boxes, and first class mail has the highest profit margin, so there’s a stress there. Which obviously has not yet been resolved.
But the book is unexpectedly hopeful to the mail lover, because a constant theme of the book is that the US Post Office has spent its entire life shambling from minor crisis to major crisis to minor crisis again, Congress has tried to muck it up since day one, and it has essentially always been mildly on fire. Yet it survives without taking tax money since 1982, despite people’s attempts to kill it by making it pre-pay pensions to invisible retirees or just printing its obituary as “lol internet” and hoping it doesn’t have the strength to fight you. Yet neither snow nor rain nor Congress being shitty has yet stopped the mail, despite 241 years of darned good effort.
My advance copy of this book was free from the publisher for the purposes of review.
The coverage of the 1970 postal strike was also very refreshing, and makes a good argument for why these strikes were both justified and likely entirely necessary for the postal employees of that period to enact any change in their status. Consider, a New York City mail carrier earned less than a New York City garbage man of that year, worked longer hours, and lack of efficient implementation of mail sorting technology meant that most mail in the country was still sorted by hand, which required a lot of training and practice, when the Post Office had had sorting machines and OCR technology for years. I’d strike too.
There’s a few things I’d have liked to see more of, like more Rocketeers with their pneumatic tubes, and I’d have really liked more stuff about the importance of postal employment to the rise of the Black middle class (although this was likely skipped due to being very recently covered in There's Always Work at the Post Office: African American Postal Workers and the Fight for Jobs, Justice, and Equality.) In addition the book still follows a bit too much Great Man style, giving you the names and important work of every last postmaster general from Ben Franklin down, yet not much from the little people who used the mail or trodded around in the mud delivering it. But it’s an overview level book, so these things are to be expected.
If nothing else this book is important for its somewhat awkward placement in history, because it comes at a pivotal time in the institution of the mail: as of the last USPS report first class mail volume has dropped to an all-time low where it will either continue to drop or plateau off, while the volume of packages and parcels the mail is carrying is continuing to rise in tandem with their unexpected new best friend, Amazon.com. USPS technology and procedures are optimized for “flats” and not boxes, and first class mail has the highest profit margin, so there’s a stress there. Which obviously has not yet been resolved.
But the book is unexpectedly hopeful to the mail lover, because a constant theme of the book is that the US Post Office has spent its entire life shambling from minor crisis to major crisis to minor crisis again, Congress has tried to muck it up since day one, and it has essentially always been mildly on fire. Yet it survives without taking tax money since 1982, despite people’s attempts to kill it by making it pre-pay pensions to invisible retirees or just printing its obituary as “lol internet” and hoping it doesn’t have the strength to fight you. Yet neither snow nor rain nor Congress being shitty has yet stopped the mail, despite 241 years of darned good effort.
My advance copy of this book was free from the publisher for the purposes of review.
July 31, 2023
I love USPS and I recommend this book to any and all Americans! So informative and incredibly relevant! The mail is so essential and I think it’s the one government agency that both liberals and conservatives equally value and appreciate. The author seemed very unbiased and really covered every major historical issue and event in US history since the 1700s through 2021 that included USPS. 5/5 stars!
July 27, 2024
More like 3.5 stars, but this was a fun little read! Lots of cool facts about how the post office started. Some parts were a bit of a drag, but overall really interesting!
July 21, 2025
Holy moly I had no idea all that has happened with the history of our postal service. A bit overwhelming at times, honestly. I learned so much!!!
August 14, 2016
Neither Snow nor Rain is a great study of the history of the largest letter carrier and the second largest employer in the US, or rather, it is a great book about the history of the US, especially the federal government, through the lens of the US Postal Service. Having grown up in a country where mail delivery is not reliable and rarely safe, I was shocked to see the things Americans mail through their national mail system. Checks! Jewelry! Legal documents! All of that was baffling to me, and quickly, I was in awe of the USPS. Over the years, Americans have become increasingly disgruntled with the USPS, and I found it difficult to understand why such an institution had such a bad reputation, despite being still very reliable and honest. Devin Leonard's extremely well researched and well written book does an excellent job of explaining the turning points, the key players, and the difficulties the institution has faced in the past and still faces today. Beyond the obvious (that physical mail is being replaced by electronic mail) Leonard's research shows how the political forces within and without the federal government, private interests with big lobbies, the unions, and the determination to insist on a capitalist mentality have driven the USPS to some tight corners over the centuries.
Overall, the history of the postal system is fascinating, not only because it is such an important part of our daily lives today, but also because it was such a strong influence in shaping the way the US developed as a country (for example, how it shaped the airline industry.) The early worries that allowing black man to become mail carriers, which would enlighten them and lead them to rise up against their "masters" might sound awfully weird and outdated today, but seem very much a part of how the country was shaped from its very beginnings. Similarly, how the USPS seems behind the times with its slow adaptation to the digital age, while it was at the forefront of air mail delivery, mechanical sorting, handwriting recognition, and scanning, may seem puzzling, but as Leonard shows, the push and pull of politics, private competitors (FedEx, UPS, etc.), and the unions seems to have shaped the strange place the government giant finds itself today, wedded uncomfortably to Amazon.
Strangely, the story of the USPS seems like a familiar tale to me, another case of Americans wanting to have their cake and eat it, too. We want better mail delivery to everywhere (the largest, house delivery range in the world!), but we do not want a bigger USPS with more employees. We want USPS workers to earn well and retire well, but we do not want to pay for it ourselves (then who?) in a time when the two biggest money-makers for the USPS (junk mail and first class mail) are at a decline and will probably never come back. It seems like another case of wanting better service without having to pay for it, and another case of Americans lacking perspective, not having experiences other postals services where you never send anything important through the government mail service unless you are poor and you cannot afford the private carriers... For example, when some remote post offices were going to be closed to save USPS billions of dollars, of course the residents (who would still get daily deliveries) were unhappy, but I bet most of those residents were also "against big government." So do we want big government that has far reach and affordable prices for ALL, or do we want small government and limited, better service (with good salaries for postals workers and good retirement).
Over and over again, Leonard reports the dilemma that the USPS has: a government agency bent on serving all equally well or a capitalist company that has to turn a profit. It seems that having both, just due to the size of the country and the immense amount of consumerism and banking, seems unlikely to succeed.
Recommended for those who like history, Benjamin Franklin, Wells Fargo, children put through the mail, and Jennies.
Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Press for a free digital copy of this book in exchange of my honest review. A great non-fiction read that I immensely enjoyed!
Overall, the history of the postal system is fascinating, not only because it is such an important part of our daily lives today, but also because it was such a strong influence in shaping the way the US developed as a country (for example, how it shaped the airline industry.) The early worries that allowing black man to become mail carriers, which would enlighten them and lead them to rise up against their "masters" might sound awfully weird and outdated today, but seem very much a part of how the country was shaped from its very beginnings. Similarly, how the USPS seems behind the times with its slow adaptation to the digital age, while it was at the forefront of air mail delivery, mechanical sorting, handwriting recognition, and scanning, may seem puzzling, but as Leonard shows, the push and pull of politics, private competitors (FedEx, UPS, etc.), and the unions seems to have shaped the strange place the government giant finds itself today, wedded uncomfortably to Amazon.
Strangely, the story of the USPS seems like a familiar tale to me, another case of Americans wanting to have their cake and eat it, too. We want better mail delivery to everywhere (the largest, house delivery range in the world!), but we do not want a bigger USPS with more employees. We want USPS workers to earn well and retire well, but we do not want to pay for it ourselves (then who?) in a time when the two biggest money-makers for the USPS (junk mail and first class mail) are at a decline and will probably never come back. It seems like another case of wanting better service without having to pay for it, and another case of Americans lacking perspective, not having experiences other postals services where you never send anything important through the government mail service unless you are poor and you cannot afford the private carriers... For example, when some remote post offices were going to be closed to save USPS billions of dollars, of course the residents (who would still get daily deliveries) were unhappy, but I bet most of those residents were also "against big government." So do we want big government that has far reach and affordable prices for ALL, or do we want small government and limited, better service (with good salaries for postals workers and good retirement).
Over and over again, Leonard reports the dilemma that the USPS has: a government agency bent on serving all equally well or a capitalist company that has to turn a profit. It seems that having both, just due to the size of the country and the immense amount of consumerism and banking, seems unlikely to succeed.
Recommended for those who like history, Benjamin Franklin, Wells Fargo, children put through the mail, and Jennies.
Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Press for a free digital copy of this book in exchange of my honest review. A great non-fiction read that I immensely enjoyed!
July 23, 2016
Really boring. I can't lie, I am very frustrated with the USPS. Today a package arrived damaged and yesterday I had a package that was said to have been delivered...when it wasn't (it appeared later in the day). But despite my issues with the USPS this seemed like an intriguing pickup. I often enjoy micro-histories or histories of very specific items/entities/products so I thought I'd give this a shot.
Unfortunately it's an extremely tedious and boring read. I'll give the author/publisher credit for getting the title correct: it's a history of the US Postal Service. That said, as at least one negative review notes, it reads very much like a very dry retelling. The author clearly has a passion and interest for it (and the prologue seemed to show promise for the rest of the book), but wow, was this really dry and boring.
That said, there were some interesting tidbits (like delivering for Amazon, addressing workplace violence which is sadly rather relevant). But it was difficult to get into. The author clearly feels a passion for the subject but that didn't quite translate to the reader. It could be that my dislike got in the way too much but overall I just wasn't impressed with the style.
If these types of stories are your thing then give it a try. Would recommend you borrow it from the local library unless there's something about the USPS that you'd need for reference.
Unfortunately it's an extremely tedious and boring read. I'll give the author/publisher credit for getting the title correct: it's a history of the US Postal Service. That said, as at least one negative review notes, it reads very much like a very dry retelling. The author clearly has a passion and interest for it (and the prologue seemed to show promise for the rest of the book), but wow, was this really dry and boring.
That said, there were some interesting tidbits (like delivering for Amazon, addressing workplace violence which is sadly rather relevant). But it was difficult to get into. The author clearly feels a passion for the subject but that didn't quite translate to the reader. It could be that my dislike got in the way too much but overall I just wasn't impressed with the style.
If these types of stories are your thing then give it a try. Would recommend you borrow it from the local library unless there's something about the USPS that you'd need for reference.
August 16, 2016
I'm a fan of nonfiction that illuminates some sort of everyday experience that I give no thought to. Mail delivery is something I have taken for granted. My family had worked for the postal service since the 1970s, so I know more about the inner workings than most. But I didn't know this history.
I keep six magnetic markers in books I'm reading to mark interesting passages to share with my wife. I averaged three markers per chapter in this book. There's plenty in here that will make you say, "Oh! So that's how that started!"
I keep six magnetic markers in books I'm reading to mark interesting passages to share with my wife. I averaged three markers per chapter in this book. There's plenty in here that will make you say, "Oh! So that's how that started!"
January 11, 2018
I think it can easy for us to take the USPS for granted. We expect to receive mail 6 days a week and compared to most other countries in the world, it is still quite cheap to send a letter.
As a frequent letter writer to my penpals, I really enjoyed finding out about the history of the USPS and how it came to be what it is now. Honestly, I never realized how political the USPS was made to be. Towards the end of the book, I did start to wonder if a woman would ever be hired as the postmaster general.
As a frequent letter writer to my penpals, I really enjoyed finding out about the history of the USPS and how it came to be what it is now. Honestly, I never realized how political the USPS was made to be. Towards the end of the book, I did start to wonder if a woman would ever be hired as the postmaster general.
October 26, 2018
A really fantastic book, the kind that's so chockful of great stories that you can't help but want to share 'em. It's what I call a "Did you know....?" book because that's a question I so often ask of others before enlightening them with something interesting I just learned. Fans of Erik Larsen, and well, good old fashioned mail will appreciate this one.
July 16, 2016
Just a shallow series of anecdotes and trivia, arranged chronologically. It's like a book-length middle school history report.
April 7, 2022
Having worked (and now retired) from the post office, this book was recommended to me by a couple friends, so I felt I should read it sooner, rather than later.
The book starts rather affectionately explaining how a college graduate, Evan Kalish, started to visit post offices in the country, taking pictures to prove he had really been to these places. This was something I did, as well, to prove I really did visit locations also.
This book was printed in 2016, so in 5 years some things have changed a little bit. Namely, there is a new postmaster general DeJoy who again, has big plans for making changes...and he, like many before him, have never worked at the post office and doesn't know how his plans on paper are not easily equated to the numbers he is seeking while disrupting the lives of people knitted together in this whole thing. Once again, DeJoy was awarded the position by a standing President who doesn't understand the post office.
But back to what I thought about the book...it was a good book. I'm glad to have read it. It was informative. It explains a great deal going back to the beginning that most of the people put in charge were done so by our government as favors with people who hadn't a clue as to what they were doing. It wasn't until postmaster positions were not filled as a political favor did the operation end run better, but by then the damage was clearly done. (Moving up the ladder, from the inside, is always the best way.)
There were two things that bothered me about the book. #1 was the repeated use of the term "junk mail". That is not a term employees use. We call it standard mail because of its postage rate. No mail, to a carrier, is junk because it pays our wages. I would imagine the average person reading this book is a postal employee, or perhaps a great deal of the readers are currently employed or are retired from the PO, and the continued use of the words, "junk mail" is an insult and derogatory to the nature of our business. #2 after 911 when anthrax was traveling through the mail system, it was the postal service who footed the bill for the biohazard equipment that is still in place today to detect and eradicate the biohazard in the processing units. I think that is a huge omission in the book that exemplifies how far the company goes to keep the mail safe.
I enjoyed the historical aspect of the book. Reading the more contemporary parts saddens me greatly to think there may come a time in the future when we may not have a post office. That will be a very sad day, indeed because the PO ties everyone together. Just like the same sun shines upon us all, so the US postal service touches us all everyday somewhere in the US, rain or shine.
The book starts rather affectionately explaining how a college graduate, Evan Kalish, started to visit post offices in the country, taking pictures to prove he had really been to these places. This was something I did, as well, to prove I really did visit locations also.
This book was printed in 2016, so in 5 years some things have changed a little bit. Namely, there is a new postmaster general DeJoy who again, has big plans for making changes...and he, like many before him, have never worked at the post office and doesn't know how his plans on paper are not easily equated to the numbers he is seeking while disrupting the lives of people knitted together in this whole thing. Once again, DeJoy was awarded the position by a standing President who doesn't understand the post office.
But back to what I thought about the book...it was a good book. I'm glad to have read it. It was informative. It explains a great deal going back to the beginning that most of the people put in charge were done so by our government as favors with people who hadn't a clue as to what they were doing. It wasn't until postmaster positions were not filled as a political favor did the operation end run better, but by then the damage was clearly done. (Moving up the ladder, from the inside, is always the best way.)
There were two things that bothered me about the book. #1 was the repeated use of the term "junk mail". That is not a term employees use. We call it standard mail because of its postage rate. No mail, to a carrier, is junk because it pays our wages. I would imagine the average person reading this book is a postal employee, or perhaps a great deal of the readers are currently employed or are retired from the PO, and the continued use of the words, "junk mail" is an insult and derogatory to the nature of our business. #2 after 911 when anthrax was traveling through the mail system, it was the postal service who footed the bill for the biohazard equipment that is still in place today to detect and eradicate the biohazard in the processing units. I think that is a huge omission in the book that exemplifies how far the company goes to keep the mail safe.
I enjoyed the historical aspect of the book. Reading the more contemporary parts saddens me greatly to think there may come a time in the future when we may not have a post office. That will be a very sad day, indeed because the PO ties everyone together. Just like the same sun shines upon us all, so the US postal service touches us all everyday somewhere in the US, rain or shine.
February 12, 2024
“Neither Snow Nor Rain” by Devin Leonard is an entertaining and informative book on the history of the US Post Office. A testament to the USA’s logistical prowess, the history of the post office is not so different from the history of American society. The book is fun and informative, but has some strange editing elements that drag it down.
First, I just truly enjoy the subject of this book. Devin clearly did his research and it shows. That’s not to mention the fun little anecdotes he throws in, here and there. My personal favorite was the ad placed by a postmaster demanding the citizens to pay their debts to him…can you imagine!? Devin throws in these strange moments alongside some actual heroism, like the first pilots of the Air Mail.
I had no idea the Post Office could be such an interesting subject, but Devin ties it to American culture. Just by looking at the changing attitudes towards government gives a microcosm of Americans’ views on privatization and government control in the Reagan era.
Additionally, Devin cites his work masterfully! The amount of non-fiction books I read with incomprehensible Notes sections is innumerable. I can’t stand it! Devin gives the page number and exact sentence of each claim. Furthermore, you can see that in the Notes section that Devin even interviewed these people himself! Hats off for such good research, I really respect it.
My only qualm with the book is the poor editing. Chapters can change the time period wildly, especially the last few, which is jarring when the book starts out purely chronological. Going from the 80’s to the 60’s to the 90’s to the 70’s is really confusing, especially because each presidential administration is so important to the Post Office. Finally, the last 40 pages or so had tons of typos - calling a manager a “manger” and dropping the billion off of “$5.6”, to name a few.
The Epilogue was also not worth the time, probably could have been cut out. It answered the prologue but, honestly? It barely did so, and saying nothing at all would have been the same.
These weird editing decisions notwithstanding, “Neither Snow Nor Rain” was an incredibly joyful read (especially after reading “Blood Meridian”!) that was very well researched. I would recommend to Post Office or American History fans. 4.25/5
First, I just truly enjoy the subject of this book. Devin clearly did his research and it shows. That’s not to mention the fun little anecdotes he throws in, here and there. My personal favorite was the ad placed by a postmaster demanding the citizens to pay their debts to him…can you imagine!? Devin throws in these strange moments alongside some actual heroism, like the first pilots of the Air Mail.
I had no idea the Post Office could be such an interesting subject, but Devin ties it to American culture. Just by looking at the changing attitudes towards government gives a microcosm of Americans’ views on privatization and government control in the Reagan era.
Additionally, Devin cites his work masterfully! The amount of non-fiction books I read with incomprehensible Notes sections is innumerable. I can’t stand it! Devin gives the page number and exact sentence of each claim. Furthermore, you can see that in the Notes section that Devin even interviewed these people himself! Hats off for such good research, I really respect it.
My only qualm with the book is the poor editing. Chapters can change the time period wildly, especially the last few, which is jarring when the book starts out purely chronological. Going from the 80’s to the 60’s to the 90’s to the 70’s is really confusing, especially because each presidential administration is so important to the Post Office. Finally, the last 40 pages or so had tons of typos - calling a manager a “manger” and dropping the billion off of “$5.6”, to name a few.
The Epilogue was also not worth the time, probably could have been cut out. It answered the prologue but, honestly? It barely did so, and saying nothing at all would have been the same.
These weird editing decisions notwithstanding, “Neither Snow Nor Rain” was an incredibly joyful read (especially after reading “Blood Meridian”!) that was very well researched. I would recommend to Post Office or American History fans. 4.25/5
August 5, 2022
I wanted a lot more out of a history of USPS than I got in Neither Snow nor Rain. I learned a lot of mail-related trivia, and certain sections were cool (learning Benjamin Franklin's specific role as a postmaster or about the development of airmail), but the overall story (not helped by the audiobook narrator) felt quite shallow, and reading it six years after publication has made some of its concluding comments a bit ironic in hindsight.
As with many governmental institutions, the Postal Service (founded as the Post Office Department) has had a continual tension between public service and competitive business, and (especially as its workers unionized at the end of the 19th century to the present) labor/management issues, with everything exacerbated by the evolution of technology and the rise of email. The agency has clearly been both on the side of innovation as well as resistance to innovation, so it's a more complex history than I'd imagine. It's also depressing how much of what the letter carrier brings me each year is junk mail.
As with many governmental institutions, the Postal Service (founded as the Post Office Department) has had a continual tension between public service and competitive business, and (especially as its workers unionized at the end of the 19th century to the present) labor/management issues, with everything exacerbated by the evolution of technology and the rise of email. The agency has clearly been both on the side of innovation as well as resistance to innovation, so it's a more complex history than I'd imagine. It's also depressing how much of what the letter carrier brings me each year is junk mail.
December 7, 2022
A very complete history of the United States post office. From the beginning through today, a look at how the post office survived many crisis and problems to be the organization. It is today. I found the most recent history to be more interesting. Also, many interesting, mini biographies of the various persons who led the post office throughout its history.
October 15, 2023
I've always wanted to know more about the USPS and this book did a great job of providing that info. I do think it slowed during certain points in the timeline, but there were plenty of interesting tidbits to keep me engaged. I also thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook narration.
November 24, 2022
This book was surprisingly delightful. You learn both about an incredibly essential institution while also getting an interesting lens on American history from the revolution to the coronavirus. Highly readable and full of fun facts. Viva USPS!
May 8, 2020
The surprisingly fascinating (and sometimes almost unbelievable) history of the USPS. Really enjoyed it.
July 22, 2019
This one was up and down for me. The writing wasn't particularly engaging, and I was constantly putting it down for weeks at a time and then picking it back up again. I finally switched to the audio version because it nearly lost me altogether.
Written chronologically, the first couple of chapters were really strong. I wish they had been drawn out even more. The dawn of the post office, the introduction of technologies such as the telegram, steamships, etc. I felt was a little too glossed over. I was craving an exploration of that more distant history, and I felt let down by what little I got.
Towards the middle of this book, certain chapters felt unnecessarily bogged down with specifics. There's an entire chapter on airmail and Leonard recounts almost every move of the pilots delivering letters. There's another one about FDR being a stamp collector that was just so repetitive for me. It picked up more towards the end, but it felt too little too late almost.
Overall, this was just a little disjointed and wasn't able to hold my attention that well. That being said, there were parts I really enjoyed and I've never read or even heard of another book on this subject.
Written chronologically, the first couple of chapters were really strong. I wish they had been drawn out even more. The dawn of the post office, the introduction of technologies such as the telegram, steamships, etc. I felt was a little too glossed over. I was craving an exploration of that more distant history, and I felt let down by what little I got.
Towards the middle of this book, certain chapters felt unnecessarily bogged down with specifics. There's an entire chapter on airmail and Leonard recounts almost every move of the pilots delivering letters. There's another one about FDR being a stamp collector that was just so repetitive for me. It picked up more towards the end, but it felt too little too late almost.
Overall, this was just a little disjointed and wasn't able to hold my attention that well. That being said, there were parts I really enjoyed and I've never read or even heard of another book on this subject.
February 18, 2018
Though I really appreciated the history and all of its details of the USPS, I found this book to be incredibly painful to read. The writing style to me was disjointed and it was difficult to keep track of the timeline and individuals. Maybe it is just me, but I really did not like the writing style. I can't even imagine the amount of research the author must have done to write this book though. That alone is commendable.
April 20, 2018
A straightforward history of the USPS from its founding up to the present day. The first part of the book reads like a postal focused US history and the latter is more a series of articles about postal crises, including workplace violence and the threat of insolvency. It's well written and full of interesting facts and anecdotes about this American institution.
March 11, 2017
Information without insight. Why was the Post Service initially granted a monopoly on delivery? Why did postal unions become so powerful? What does it mean to become an "independent" government agency? I feel like I didn't really learn anything.
May 18, 2016
Loved this book! Posted my complete review on my blog:
http://www.berkshire-company.com/the-...
http://www.berkshire-company.com/the-...
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