Une histoire des débuts et de l'évolution des services postaux en Europe, entre 1500 et 1800. L'auteur analyse le fonctionnement des divers systèmes mis en place, montre leur influence sur les usages de la communication et sur la perception du monde et définit l'apparition de la notion de service public et de vie privée. Elle s'attache particulièrement à la situation de la France. ©Electre 2024

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.

In this book Jay Caplan provides readers with both a comprehensive overview of the changes wrought by the newly public postal system, and a thought-provoking account of the expectations that have led to our culture of instant communication.