Person

Richard R. John

Bylines

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The Other Sherman’s March

How the younger brother of the famous general set out to destroy the scourge of monopoly power.

by Richard R. John via HNN on October 22, 2024
How Tech Giants Make History

AT&T’s early leaders used PR to sway public opinion, casting their monopoly as a public service and obscuring its political roots.

by Richard R. John via Pro-Market on October 10, 2024
Five Myths About the U.S. Postal Service

It’s not obsolete, and it’s not a business.

by Richard R. John via Washington Post on August 21, 2020
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The Founders Never Intended the U.S. Postal Service to be Managed Like a Business

The mail delivery agency is supposed to serve the public good — not worry about profit.

by Richard R. John via Made By History on April 27, 2020
When Did Americans Stop Being Antimonopoly?

Columbia professor Richard R. John explains the history of U.S. monopolies and why antimonopoly should not be conflated with antitrust.

by Richard R. John, Asher Schechter via Pro-Market on November 21, 2016

Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications

Richard R. John

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Illustration of a proslavery mob raiding a post office in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1835.

How Much Is Too Much?

The dramatic story of the abolitionist mail crisis of 1835.

via BackStory on December 7, 2012

The Love of Monopoly

Why did the U.S. allow its national communications markets to be run by expansive monopolists?

by Tim Wu via The New Republic on May 19, 2011

An excerpt of a newspaper from the 19th century.

How US Newspapers Became Utterly Ubiquitous in the 1830s

Ken Ellingwood on the social and political function of political media.

by Ken Ellingwood via Literary Hub on May 6, 2021

The History of the USPS and the Politics of Postal Reform

Reform was framed as a way of removing “politics” from postal affairs and giving more autonomy to postal management. In time, it would prove to do neither.

by Ryan Ellis via TIME on August 18, 2020

How Congress Used the Post Office to Unite the Nation

Trump says Amazon is scamming the USPS. But its low shipping rates were a game changer for rural America.

by Stephen Mihm via Bloomberg on April 4, 2018

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