Cheap Postage

Leavitt, Joshua, 1794-1873Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

1.8

Word count: 229K words
Chapters: 23

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Cheap Postage by Joshua LeavittAuthor: Leavitt, Joshua, 1794-1873,Language: English, Class: HE: Social sciences: Transportation and communications, Release Date: Nov 7, 2008

Editor's review

This book addresses the subject of "cheap postage" and belongs to the historical literature on transportation and communication within the social sciences. The author, Joshua Leavitt, lived from the late eighteenth century to the 1870s, and his discussion bears clear marks of its era; readers can use it to understand the context and argumentative style of early debates over postal rate reform. As a free e-book on Project Gutenberg, it is easily accessible and suitable as supplementary material for the history of postal services, the history of communication policy, or nineteenth-century socioeconomic issues. Read it as a primary historical text rather than a guide to the contemporary postal system; its claims and data must be understood in light of the period in which it was written. For readers concerned with the pricing of public services, the cost of information transmission, and social equity, the book offers a concrete, close-up point of observation. Its length and style are those of historical argument, so it is best read selectively by chapter with specific questions in mind and compared with postal-reform material of the same period for a fuller picture.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students and researchers of postal history or the history of communication policy
Readers concerned with nineteenth-century socioeconomic reform
Self-learners who need free historical documents in English as supplementary material
Readers interested in the pricing of public services and the cost of information transmission

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking a guide to contemporary postal operations
Beginners who need systematic textbooks or a complete course
General readers who prefer light, story-driven reading

Reading tips

Skim the table of contents and preface first to identify the author's central claims and scope, then decide which chapters to read closely.
Note the postal rates and institutional background mentioned in the text, and cross-check them against postal records of the same period.
Read alongside material on nineteenth-century communication history or public-service reform to avoid understanding the text in isolation.
If the English original proves difficult, grasp each paragraph's topic sentence first, then work through the detailed argument.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book suitable for understanding the contemporary postal system?

No. It is a historical document from a nineteenth-century context, discussing cheap-postage arguments and rate issues of that time, not an operational guide to contemporary postal services. For modern postal systems, consult current policy and practical materials; this book is better used as historical background and a record of original debate.

What language skills are needed to read this book?

It is an original English work and requires some English reading comprehension. The discussion carries a nineteenth-century style, and sentences may be long. Readers with limited English can first use a dictionary to grasp the main points, or read alongside relevant Chinese research material to reduce difficulty.

To what discipline does this book belong?

According to Project Gutenberg's classification, it falls under transportation and communication in the social sciences, with a theme centered on postal rates and communication costs. It is closer to historical documentation and policy discussion than to literature, and is best used from the perspective of postal history or the history of communication policy.

How can I obtain this book?

It is published by Project Gutenberg as a free e-book, and the English original can be obtained on its platform. The specific file formats and download methods follow the instructions on that platform's pages. Because it is a public-domain electronic text, readers may read it freely, but citations should still note the edition and the correspondence of page numbers to the original.

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About the author

Leavitt, Joshua, 1794-1873 Author · American · 1794–1873

Joshua Leavitt (1794–1873) was an American abolitionist and journalist. For many years he edited the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, using it as a platform for sustained advocacy and earning a place in the American abolitionist movement. One work of his survives in this catalog, Cheap Postage, though the available records do not make clear the circumstances of its composition or its full contents. In general, Leavitt's writing and editorial work centered on social reform, addressed a public readership, and emphasized argument and appeal, bearing the strong polemical mark of his era. Public information on him is limited, and the details of his articles in the abolitionist press and their influence remain to be further examined.