Washington Post: Before America had the Declaration of Independence, much less the Constitution, the nation had the Postal Service. Before Benjamin Franklin wooed France into the alliance that won our freedom, he sowed the seeds of the U.S. mail. The history of the United States of America cannot be understood without the post office.

The many reasons this is true boil down to a few essentials. America’s mail service enabled the distribution of cheap news sources that engaged an informed citizenry. The mail was a lifeline connecting frontier to home base. It was the sinew of commerce and the lifeblood of democracy.

At every stage in our history, Americans have moved more information and more products across greater distances with greater speed than any nation before. And no nation spread that bounty more broadly than the U.S., where the same first-class stamp carries a letter next door or to the Arctic Circle.

The Postal Service is America’s first miracle and among its most endangered, threatened by private delivery services, email, texting and the pensions owed to retired carriers. President Donald Trump has floated the idea of sacking the appointed postal board of governors and privatizing the service, betraying a deep misunderstanding of its particular obligations. Reports of its death have been exaggerated for decades, yet on it goes, touching more Americans more reliably than just about any other agency.

Memoirist Stephen Starring Grant offers a highly personal, utterly charming tribute to this American treasure in his new book, “Mailman.” It briskly tells the story of Grant’s experience as a letter carrier on a rural route in Appalachian Virginia, after losing his fancy job as a marketing consultant to the covid-19 shutdown.

>Read more: Opinion | USPS in Stephen Starring Grant’s ‘Mailman’ remains a miracle – The Washington Post