New York City cabdrivers hold a unique place in American culture writ
large. Cabbies proverbially counsel, console, and confound. Sometimes
perceived as the key to street-level opinion or mysterious savants who
don't speak much English, the hackers who move New Yorkers have been
integral to the city's growth and culture since the mid-nineteenth
century when they first began shuttling residents, workers, and visitors
in horse-drawn carriages. Their importance grew with the introduction of
gasoline-powered cars early last century and continues to the present
day, when more than 12,000 licensed yellow cabs operate in Manhattan
alone.
Taxi! is the first book-length history of New York City cabdrivers and
the community they compose. From labor unrest and racial strife among
cabbies to ruthless competition and political machinations, this deftly
woven narrative captures the people--lower-class immigrants, for the
most part--and their struggle to attain a piece of the American dream.
Hodges tells their tale through contemporary news accounts, Hollywood
films, social science research, and the words of the cabbies themselves.
Taxi! provides a new perspective on New York's most colorful emissaries.