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Les sujets proposés

Ancien Régime

  1. The Postal Service, its professions, and policy
    • The inspectors general and superintendents general of the Postal Service in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries
    • The urban mail carriers
  2. Postal institutions and their organizations
    • The royal postal service
    • Post offices in the 17th century
    • Organization of the “Petites Postes” in Paris
    • Postal service in Paris: history of its organizations
  3. Postal Services and Power
    • Postal service and diplomacy under the Ancien Régime: European postal treaties (17th – 18th centuries)
    • Postal Service and the Revolution of 1789

The Modern Period

  1. The Postal Service, its professions and management
    • Administrators of the Postal Service
    • Directors / Postmasters (18th – 19th centuries)
    • From director to postmaster, the genesis of a position (1864 to 1945)
    • From postmaster to head of establishment, evolution of a position (1973 to the present)
    • The rural mail carrier and rural service from 1830 onwards
    • Postal assistants (Les commis des Postes)
    • History of the feminization of the Postal Service
    • Monetary items in the 19th and 20th centuries
    • The CCP after 1945
    • The National Retirement Fund and the Postal Service, the role of the administration in the diffusion of insurance
    • History of postal circulation (for example: the VPC)
    • History of relations between the Postal Service and the press: diffusion of information
    • History of social movements: 1936, 1953, 1968, 1988, 1995
    • The foundation of the CFDT, CGT, FO, CFTC and CGC
    • Social politics at the PTT
    • History of associative life at the Postal Service (19th – 20th centuries); the first personnel associations (for men and women, in the 19th century); cultural and social associations (vacations, accommodations, leisure time); sports associations; cultural associations (entertainment, literature?)
    • Comparison between postal workers and railway workers: statutes, unionism, social movements (possibly in collaboration possible with the AHICF)
    • Itinerant postal workers
  2. Postal institutions and their organizations (19th–20th centuries)
    • Location of the post offices, the network since 1804 (maps and comparison)
    • "The institutional image" (logos, identification, uniforms, colors)
    • Training in the Postal Service
    • French Post Office and security
    • Postal "propaganda" history of internal and/or external communication
    • From propaganda to advertisement to targeted publicity spots, the role of the Postal Service in the evolution of marketing; history of postal acculturation
    • History of stamp production: engravers (19th century)
    • General direction of the Postal Service (1804 - 1879)
    • Construction of the postal network in the 19th and 20th centuries (role of the state, regulation, deregulation)
    • The notion of public service
    • Studies of the different strategies and markets of the two entities P&T
  3. Transport, communications, networks
    • Dispatch transport firms (19th - 20th centuries)
    • Motorization of Postal services: mail distribution (early 20th century; between the wars; post-WWII), transportation
    • History of the three modes of transport used by the postal service: road, rail, and air transportation
    • Airmail (20th century)
    • French Post Office and railways during the 20th century; postal TGV
    • Postal service and regional planning (20th century); ”rural mail delivery by automobile”; summer migrations; Itinerant mail delivery and post offices; Postal service in extra-urban areas
    • Maritime forwarding services (creation and development)
    • Subsidiaries of the Postal Service
    • History of the mechanization and computerization of the Postal Service (sorting center, financial center, post office)
  4. Postal Services and power
    • Postal Service in wartime: Indochina and Algeria
    • Postal Service in peacetime or wartime: Military Postal Service
    • The Postal Service and its relationship with political power: Conte, Vandal, Cochery (19th century); Marette, Mexandeau (Fifth Republic)
  5. The Postal Service and society
    • History of health at the Postal Service (19th - 20th centuries); pathologies and diseases; on the job risks and work-related dangers; organization of medical service
    • History of the Postal Service and cities, construction of urban spaces
    • Regional planning in a rural context
    • Postal Service in Paris
    • History of postal architecture, real estate politics and health issues
    • History of postal workers’ (mail carriers’?) uniforms
    • History of the letter (registered, COD, e-mail, etc.)
    • Sociology of postal workers through the centuries
    • Celebrity of PTT functionaries from the artistic, literary, and scientific points of view
    • The Postal Service and/or postal workers as seen in the press, literature and/or cinema
    • The postal code
  6. Relations between the Postal Service and foreign services
    • History of the Universal Postal Union
    • History of the Postal Service in the Maghreb
    • History of the Postal Service in Africa
    • History of the Postal Service in the DOM-TOM
    • History of the Postal Service and the European countries
  7. Biographies and “prosopography”:
    • Selected general directors: Antoine Conte, Auguste Stourm, Edouard Vandal, Justin de Selves, Léon Mougeot (19th century), Julien Simyan, Charles Chaumet
    • Selected ministers: Alexandre Millerand, Etienne Clémentel, Eugène Thomas, Jacques Marette (20th century)
    • Other individuals: Claude-Humbert Piarron de Chamousset