Taxi!: A Social History of the New York City Cabdriver

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.

Author: Graham Russell Gao Hodges
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 03/01/2012
Pages: 225
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.72lbs
Size: 8.66h x 5.77w x 0.63d
ISBN: 9780814738764

About the Author
Hodges, Graham Russell Gao: - Graham Russell Gao Hodges, a former New York City cabdriver, is the George Dorland Langdon, Jr., Professor of History and Africana and Latin American Studies at Colgate University. He is the author of many books, including David Ruggles: A Radical Black Abolitionist and the Underground Railroad in New York City.