The postal age: the emergence of modern communications in nineteenth-century America

Introduction

pt. 1: Joining a network. Becoming postal : a communications revolution in antebellum America

Mailable matters : from news to mail

Playing post office : mail in urban space

pt. 2: Postal intimacy. Embracing opportunities : the construction of the personal letter

Precious as gold : mobility and family in the Gold Rush and Civil War

Mass mailings : valentines, junk mail, and dead letters

Epilogue.