Forever Stamps: 250 Years of United States History Writ Small by United States Postal ServiceMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
While USPS is not a traditional part of the United States government due to its business structure running independently of taxpayer funds, it is still a part of the United States government, which is always important to keep in mind when you're reading anything officially endorsed or published by it. I really enjoyed this book, due mostly to my personal interest in philately, but that was in spite of its status as a government-produced text.
This serves mostly as a collection of blurbs about various stamps, highlighting several Black people who have been given stamps and a select number of women (most of whom are under the entertainment category or the Black history category). While this spotlight is admirable, and the repeated acknowledgements within the text of how long it took for different diversity milestones to be met within the postal stamp collection, it is still not enough. There's an incredible lack of racial diversity when it comes to anyone who isn't Black, with most acknowledgements being made in the form of cultural stamps that don't depict any people (Piñatas!, Eid, etc.). There's also some stamps highlighted that have an unrecognized political side to them (war stamps from the Celebrate the Century series, an entire page dedicated to Harry Potter stamps, etc.)
Which is to say, this is a great text about stamps, and it could be used as a way to read small biographies of different features through United States history, but those biographies are inherently biased due to the nature of residing in this book. Pair it with independent, balanced research. And, perhaps, an international stamp magazine.
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Bonus
My favorite stamp series: Vintage Circus Posters (visible here)
My favorite stamp series from my personal collection: Goodnight Moon (visible here)
My Postcrossing Wall (only visible if you also use Postcrossing)
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