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Books > History > World history > 1750 to 1900
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Postal Culture in Europe, 1500-1800 (Paperback)
Loot Price: R3,187
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Postal Culture in Europe, 1500-1800 (Paperback)
Series: Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment, 2016:04
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
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During the early modern period the public postal systems became
central pillars of the emerging public sphere. Despite the
importance of the post in the transformation of communication,
commerce and culture, little has been known about the functioning
of the post or how it affected the lives of its users and their
societies. In Postal culture in Europe, 1500-1800, Jay Caplan
provides the first historical and cultural analysis of the
practical conditions of letter-exchange at the dawn of the modern
age. Caplan opens his analysis by exploring the economic,
political, social and existential interests that were invested in
the postal service, and traces the history of the three main
European postal systems of the era, the Thurn and Taxis, the French
Royal Post and the British Post Office. He then explores how the
post worked, from the folding and sealing of letters to their
collection, sorting, and transportation. Beyond providing service
to the general public, these systems also furnished early modern
states with substantial revenue and effective surveillance tools in
the form of the Black Cabinets or Black Chambers. Caplan explains
how postal services highlighted the tension between state power and
the emerging concept of the free individual, with rights to private
communication outside the public sphere. Postal systems therefore
affected how letter writers and readers conceived and expressed
themselves as individuals, which the author demonstrates through an
examination of the correspondence of Voltaire and Rousseau, not
merely as texts but as communicative acts. Ultimately, Jay Caplan
provides readers with both a comprehensive overview of the changes
wrought by the newly-public postal system - from the sounds that
one heard to the perception of time and distance - and a thought
provoking account of the expectations and desires that have led to
our culture of instant communication.
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