America's First Information Revolution

In The late 1700's Europe was most informative due to their profusion of newspapers and the amount of newspapers they had read. As time crept up into the 1800's the United States had a larger use of newspapers even though the population difference was substantial. "In 1835 after travels in America, The English writer Richard Cobden pointed out that despite a larger population, the British Isles had only 369 newspapers, of which only 17 were daily, while the United States, according to an almanac for 1834, had 1,265 newspapers, of which 90 were daily" (Starr, P.86). In 1835 the United States was larger than Great Britain by two or three times in the sense of per capita circulation. On The other hand the rise of Post Offices as well fed the people with information and news. Before the Revolution, there was an estimated 67 offices or just about 4.5 per 100,000 inhabitants. The Rise of Post Offices and Newspapers had also opened up a way for employment handing out around 8,700 jobs for postmasters. Time kept moving forward and 67 offices then turned to 74 in the United States.

I Find this information extremely important because it goes back to our roots and informs us on how and where it all started. Most of us were born in the late 1900's where basically everything we know was established already. If we didn't have such informative systems we live by today then where exactly would we be?