Postcards : The Rise and Fall of the World’s First Social Network

A global exploration of postcards as artifacts at the intersection of history, science, technology, art, and culture. Postcards are usually associated with banal holiday pleasantries, but they are made possible by sophisticated industries and institutions, from printers to postal services. When they were invented, postcards established what is now taken for granted in modern times: the ability to send and receive messages around the world easily and inexpensively. Fundamentally they are about creating personal connections—links between people, places, and beliefs. Lydia Pyne examines postcards on a global scale, to understand them as artifacts that are at the intersection of history, science, technology, art, and culture. In doing so, she shows how postcards were the first global social network and also, here in the twenty-first century, how postcards are not yet extinct. Postcards are usually associated with banal holiday pleasantries, but they have been made possible by sophisticated industries and institutions, from printers to postal services. Historically, postcards' innovation and significance was their ability to send and receive messages around the world easily and inexpensively. Fundamentally, postcards are about creating personal connections: links between people, places and beliefs. In this book Lydia Pyne examines postcards on a global scale, to understand them as artefacts that are at the intersection of history, science, technology, art and culture. In doing so, she shows us that postcards were the first global social network, and how here, in the twenty-first century, postcards are not yet extinct Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Introduction: Invention and Reinvention One: Signed, Stamped, and Delivered Two: The Means of Mass Production Three: Publicity and Propaganda Four: Having a Wonderful Time, Wish You Were Here Five: Postcards from Countries That No Longer Exist Conclusion: The Afterlives of Postcards References Bibliography Acknowledgments Photo Acknowledgments Index