Patricia L. Maclachlan. The People's Post Office

This is not the book I expected, and it was nice to be surprised. Patricia Maclachlan's monograph is a well-written, argument-driven analysis of the interest group politics that drive Japan's modern state bureaucracy. Maclachlan has crafted an exquisite study of institutional politics as a means to further demonstrate the distinctive role played by commissioned postmasters in Japan's postwar electoral system; her book also underscores the ubiquity of the political systems driving modern postal networks. This is a timely analysis of the politics behind the building, and dismantling, of the state-run post office in Japan that also adds useful comparative context to the history of postal systems worldwide. The history of the Japanese post office, which is not well developed in English-language scholarship, is particularly important in that the post has played a central role in the modernization of Japan since the Meiji era (1868–1912). Sheldon Garon's comparative history of postal savings systems, Beyond Our Means: Why America Spends While the World Saves (2012), is the definitive work on the how the post garnered the funds needed to industrialize Japan. Maclachlan has crafted a fascinating study of the commissioned postmasters who framed the house that Maejima Hisoka built

Ancient history · Bureaucracy · Context (archaeology) · Economic history · Meiji period · Modernization theory · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · State (computer science) · Chinese history and philosophy · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Public Administration