

Graham Russell Gao Hodges
Why the cabdriver is the real victim of the false promises of Uber and the gig economy.
2007 Noteworthy Book in Industrial Relations and Labor Economics. Princeton University Industrial Relations Section.
Hailed in its first edition as a classic study of New York City's history and people, Graham Russell Gao Hodges's Taxi! is a remarkable evocation of the forgotten history of the taxi driver. This deftly woven narrative captures the spirit of New York City cabdrivers and their hardscrabble struggle to capture a piece of the American dream.
From labor unrest and racial strife to ruthless...
Why the cabdriver is the real victim of the false promises of Uber and the gig economy.
2007 Noteworthy Book in Industrial Relations and Labor Economics. Princeton University Industrial Relations Section.
Hailed in its first edition as a classic study of New York City's history and people, Graham Russell Gao Hodges's Taxi! is a remarkable evocation of the forgotten history of the taxi driver. This deftly woven narrative captures the spirit of New York City cabdrivers and their hardscrabble struggle to capture a piece of the American dream.
From labor unrest and racial strife to ruthless competition and political machinations, Hodges recounts this history through contemporary news accounts, Hollywood films, and the words of the cabbies themselves. A new preface recalls the author's five years of hacking in New York City in the early 1970s, and a new concluding chapter explores the rise of app-based ridesharing services with the arrival of companies like Uber and Lyft. Sharply criticizing the use of the independent contractor model that is the cornerstone of Uber and the gig economy, Hodges argues that the explosion of for-hire vehicles in Manhattan reversed decades of environmental anti-congestion efforts. He calls for a return to the careful regulations that governed taxicabs for decades and provided a modest yet secure living for cabbies.
Whether or not you've ever hailed a cab on Broadway, Taxi! provides a fascinating perspective on New York's most colorful emissaries.
Hodges has written a marvelous, deeply empathetic, and richly detailed account of a profession so indelibly inscribed in the daily experience and mythology of urban life as to be all but invisible to us. At once frantically hailed and frequently abused, taxi drivers epitomize—in ways most of us grasp but routinely ignore—the vivid human flux that is the lifeblood of city life. Thanks to the mercurial culture, shifting demographics, and glancingly contingent nature of the experience on both sides of the glass—at once endlessly repeated and never twice the same—cabdrivers must rank among the least well-represented professionals in the hierarchy of urban life. Hodges has set out to remedy that, and has done so admirably.
Grab this cab! Its historian driver will take you on a fascinating spin around town, recalling a host of dramatic events and introducing an amazing array of cabbies past and present (including the astonishing number of movie stars who played taxi drivers on the big screen). Your perspective on cab rides—and New York City—will never be the same again.
You have to live in New York to know how critical taxis are to circulation in the great metropolis. But you do not have to live in New York to be fascinated by this unusual book, which gives a powerful human dimension to one of Gotham's most important subcultures.
Taxi! is not only lively and erudite social history, it is probably the best account of taximen that is ever to be written... The cabby is fortunate, however, to have found his sociological poet laureate in Graham Hodges. In the taxi trade, we would have called this fascinating trip in his gregarious company, 'a great fare.'
In this informative, solid history, Graham Russell Gao Hodges traces the story of the cabdrivers from 1907, when the first metered taxis appeared on New York streets, to the present.
The definitive book on New York cabs.
Hodges draws from driver memoirs, taxi publications, and the drivers' image as seen in the movies and on television. This is an interesting, readable study of the role of the taxi in New York's history, especially the struggles the drivers face.
Hodges' story will be a pleasure for both scholarly and general interest readers. Highly recommended.
Preface to the Revised Edition
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Creation of the Taxi Man, 1907-1920
2. Hack Men in the Jazz Age, 1920-1930
3. The Search for Order during the Depression, 1930-1940
4
Preface to the Revised Edition
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Creation of the Taxi Man, 1907-1920
2. Hack Men in the Jazz Age, 1920-1930
3. The Search for Order during the Depression, 1930-1940
4. Prosperity during Wartime, 1940-1950
5. The Creation of the Classic Cabby, 1950-1980
6. Unionization and Its Discontents, 1960-1980
7. The Lease Driver and Proletarian, 1980-2006
8. The Ridesharing Era, 2010-2019
Appendix. Data Tables
Notes
Essay on Sources
Index
Illustrations follow page XXX
with Hopkins Press Books