Ramtin Arablui

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This is America in Pursuit, a limited series from NPR and ThruLine.

I'm Ramtin Arablui.

Each week, we bring you stories about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in America that began 250 years ago this year.

As we count down to July 4th, I've been thinking a lot about the fact that when the founders signed the Declaration of Independence, they were literally starting a new country from scratch.

And it was a country based on ideas.

Ideas that had to somehow be shared widely.

This is Winifred Gallagher.

And like her book title implies, Winifred believes the Postal Service provided the technological infrastructure the American Revolution needed in order to succeed and then run a new democratic republic.

We know that revolutions are often fueled by new technologies.

Take the role Twitter played in organizing and connecting uprisings that took place a little over a decade ago in Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria during this so-called Arab Spring.

The American Revolution might have taken place centuries ago, and the post office might not seem anything like social media.

But consider that back then, the post office gave people in the American colonies a new way of sharing information more easily across more places than they could ever before.

And it would become a lifeline connecting people, quietly at first, to ideas that would change the world.

So today, me and Run bring you the story of how the U.S.

Postal Service fueled a revolution and gave rise to the United States of America.

That's coming up after a quick break.

She spoke to us from that little cowboy town, Du Bois, Wyoming.

Just a heads up, we talked to Winifred in the summer of 2020 at the start of the pandemic, so the audio quality may not be what you're used to hearing on this show.