A new book by Laura Rotunno, associate professor of English at Penn State Altoona, identifies the mid-1800s postal rate change in the United Kingdom as the turning point toward an increasingly educated middle class.
Postal Plots in British Fiction, 1840–1898: Readdressing Correspondence in Victorian Culture by Laura Rotunno. Published 2013 by Palgrave. ISBN 978-1137323798. Available from most major booksellers.
Read more in the Penn State press release.