Customer Reviews

The Pushcart War

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When I decided to read all the great children's books written in the English language (this project isn't going as quickly as I had hoped it would) I made a list. While writing it, something in the back of my mind reminded me that when I was a kid a book often mentioned was the 1964 title, "The Pushcart War". I had never read it when I was younger, but I had clear memories of people discussing it with vim and vigor. Seeking it out, I decided to read it for my very self. What I discovered was that this book has been unmercifully forgotten. Here we have one of the greatest parables of the 20th century and how many kids today have read it? How many kids will read it in the next 30 years? Ladies and gentlemen, if you know a child, any child, that has the ability to read you must make it your American duty to seek out a copy of this book, purchase it, and thrust it into the hands of your young acquaintance. This is one of the best books I have ever read.

Now I'm glad I read a 1964 edition of this book because it gets a little confusing at the beginning. The book begins with a Foreword by Professor Lyman Cumberly of New York University (author of "The Large Object Theory of History"). This Forward, dated 1986, reflects on the events of the New York Pushcart War and offers some insight. Here I am, 26 years of age, and I honestly thought that this was a real professor writing a real preface. Then I saw the copyright date and I figured it out. This was a fictional professor writing some 20 years in the "future" when the town was able to sort out the events as they occurred. Still, the book is written in a somewhat original and scholarly fashion. There are photographs and scripts and letters to editors and all sorts of cool little touches that make it seem like a real historical document. Which of course makes the story itself that much more amusing.

The events of the Pushcart War began when trucking companies in New York starting making their trucks bigger and bigger. This, in turn, made traffic far more congested and for the trucking companies there was a definite danger that people would insist that the trucks no longer stay so large. In a sense of misguided self-preservation, the truckers decide to blame the simple pushcart vendors on the streets for the traffic. By carefully spreading misinformation and attacking the pushcarts with a series of "accidents" the pushcart vendors find themselves in trouble. Their only recourse is to fight back, and they do so with a series of clever ideas. As the war escalates, so too do the pushcart vendors' strategies. In the end, not a single person has been killed and for once the little guy has beaten the bigger one.

In the Foreword, this sentence sums up the book: "...big wars are caused by the same sort of problems that led to the Pushcart War". True enough, some wars ARE caused by the problems found in this book. There are some wonderful touches in this story that will give adult readers an extra laugh. For example, the mayor of New York is in the pay of the big truckers and gives a speech about them while running for reelection. In it, he explains that big trucks mean bigger business, and hence - progress. If you want to ship a lot of peanut butter, you need a big truck. The candidate then goes on to say, "My opponent, Archie Love, is against trucks. He is, therefore, against progress. Maybe he is even against peanut butter". We've all heard fifty different versions of this speech in our time. Chalk this silly little sentence up to Jean Merrill's sly writing skills.

I love the characters in this story and the silly battles that are pitched. Because it was written in 1964 there is the odd reference once to "lady drivers", but it comes off as quaint rather than offensive. This is also definitely a New York creation. The original illustrations by Ronni Solbert look like nothing so much as small New Yorker cartoons turned into illustrations. Honestly, if you want a way of explaining to kids how some wars are begun (recent wars, unfortunately, don't quite fit this mold, but that's okay) this is a great way to do it. I was especially taken with the pushcart vendors' non-violent response, culminating in a honest-to-goodness peace march near the end.

Why don't more people know about this book? Why is it slowly but surely being forgotten by the masses? People, if I had my way I'd assign this book to every man, woman, and child living in the United States today. I'd shout its wonders from the rooftops and glorify it in song. I would, in short, force the world to admit that it's a classic tale. Until I'm able to do so, however, I urge you to read it yourself. You'll be delighted by its wit and wisdom as well as author Jean Merrill's great storytelling skills. Never forget it again.

I read THE PUSHCART WAR as part of a reading program when I was in fifth grade, and of all the books I read that year, this is the one of only two that stuck with me.

In the late eighties I found the book back in print, and I snatched the copy off the shelf to read to my then-seven year-old son. When I did, I made a wonderful discovery... that THE PUSHCART WAR was even more fun to read as an adult... so much so that this book would have an impact on my own writing.

THE PUSHCART WAR is not just for kids. I am in my forties now, and I still find myself going back to re-read this one. I have read it to both of my children and they love it, too. And I hope they're eavesdropping when I read it to their children -- and discover the whole subtle world of adult satire that this delightful book conceals.

I read this book because I'm a big fan of Merrill's book THE TOOTHPASTE MILLIONAIRE (ISBN 0395960630) and I wanted to see some of the others she'd written.

The book is set in crowded 1960s New York City where a turf war of sorts is evolving between taxis, cars, trucks, and street vendors. A fight for a parking space between one of the huge truck's drivers (Merrill names him "Mack" in a clever injoke) and "Morris the Florist", a pushcart peddler, ends in an accident that launches a witty all-out battle for street supremacy. The writing is fast paced, clever, and doesn't "talk down" to its intended audience of children. (I'd think grades 4 through 7 are the most likely targeted group.)

*** Some minor spoilers ahead ***

The tale on the surface is clever enough, but this book is multi-layered. Predominantly, it's an allegory for war in general, though I'd not single out any specific skirmish.

I see allusions to the Revolutionary War's Boston Tea Party and Stamp Act. When children who've joined the cause shoot tacks at trucks to flatten their tires, the city's mayor, in collusion with the trucking firms, levies a sizable tax on tacks in the hopes kids won't be able to afford them.

As far as World War 2 Naziism, the truckers' evil Master Plan would first get rid of pushcarts, then motorcycles, working their way up to taxis and cars so that they can move about on the roads more freely reasoning that the bigger vehicles move more commerce and should get more space. Later on we learn that smaller TRUCKS are also targeted by the "Big Three" behind the plan, an obvious reference to the famous quote about "When they came for the Poles, I didn't speak out because I was not Polish. Then when they came for me, there was no one to speak out for me.."

In a more generic reference to propaganda campaigns, the truckers use a giveaway newspaper to badmouth the carts.

Besides the war allegory, though, there are larger issues touched upon: civil disobedience (the Peace March), the nature of bullying (many instances), the power of the written word (a "Letters to the Editor" campaign), the idea of unionizing (the fund Maxie establishes to help cart owners repair carts hurt in the "battles" for free), corporations vs. "Mom and Pop" stores, doubletalk and graft in politics (see the "Peanut Butter Speech"), the ability of brains to win over brawn and weapons (Maxie's card game with "the Three" and the police commissioner) and the difficulty in finding the limits between activism and aggression (Harry the Hot Dog shoots a woman who criticizes his sauerkraut and is chided by one of the other vendors for it). I'm sure there are more I'm forgetting. Merrill brings up the ideas through the humour of the story but avoids becoming preachy about them, allowing the discerning reader to "get the point" on his or her own.

BOTTOM LINE:
Highly entertaining for the younger ones just as a "fun story". The older kids should be able to see some of the underlying messages and it would probably be a very good book for class reading...lots of opportunity for quality discussion of the issues raised. Adults will find it a nice afternoon read and probably see themselves (and others they know) in the faces of the warriors for both sides. It will be another of my favourites.

I first read THE PUSHCART WAR as a politically-aware sixth grader in 1971 at the nadir of America's involvement in Southeast Asia. As an indictment of, and a primer on, the causes of war, THE PUSHCART WAR is unparalleled. This little-known book should be on everyone's bookshelf, next to THE ENORMOUS EGG, another children's classic on American democracy. THE PUSHCART WAR is written as an actual history, from a vantage point ten years in the future.

THE PUSHCART WAR takes place in a New York City choked with traffic and secretly controlled by powerful business interests (the truck line owners Big Moe Mammoth, Louie Livergreen, and Walter "The Tiger" Sweet) that have co-opted the political machine of Mayor Emmett P. Cudd. "The Three" are determined to see their trucking businesses entirely dominate the city. To that end, they create a Master Plan to eliminate all other competition for the New York streets, first pushcarts, then cars, taxis and buses, and finally even small trucks.

The war begins with The Daffodil Massacre, as Morris The Florist's pushcart is destroyed and the hapless Morris finds himself upside down inside a pickle barrel. It does not take long for the pushcart owners to realize they are being targeted. They soon organize, fighting back with peashooters against the marauding trucks. Along the way, the pushcart warriors (almost all New Americans with names like Peretz, Moroney, Jerusalem, Carlos, and Hammerman) are aided by a high-profile celebrity (the movie star Wanda Gambling), a political aspirant (Mayoral candidate Archie Love), a disaffected trucker (Joey Kafflis), a Police Commissioner quietly engaging in Civil Disobedience against his own leaders, and finally the general public, who engage in a massive letter-writing campaign that topples The Three.

Although the premise seems absurd, author Jean Merrill takes each cartoonish incident and carefully constructs for the reader a tale about a democracy threatened with collapse from within, in which a hastily organized but morally motivated resistance force is able to overcome a numerically superior, more technologically advanced, but ethically bankrupt oligarchy. If this sounds subversive, it is, but in the Spirit of '76.

THE PUSHCART WAR has rarely been more relevant than nowadays. I recommend it for everyone, child and adult alike.

The original illustrations by Ronni Solbert are "New Yorker" Magazine-like in tone and structure, and evoke a sense of the city in the early 1960s that is now nostalgic. I note that in my 1966 Tempo Books edition of Merrill's 1964 story, the "future" Pushcart War took place in the spring of 1976, concluding with a general peace on July 4, 1976, America's Bicentennial, a very symbolic ending. However, more recent editions date the Copyright as 1954, and the Pushcart War in 1986. Wikipedia states that the changes (to 1998 in some editions) were made to keep the story always "in the future." If so, this is a thoughtless choice, and undermines a very subtle but crucial link to our national consciousness.

This was one of the favorite road-trip books for my family. I thought it was funny when my mom first read it to me and then a few years later, when she read it again for the benefit of my little brother, I clued in to the strong statement it makes against war. I'm in my thirties now and still bring it along to read to friends while we drive. They often think I'm strange, but by the second chapter, they're converts. One of the book's concepts that has stuck with me through the years and provided pleasant distraction while confronting traffic is the categorization of trucks -- I find myself deciding whether or not the behemoth bearing down on me is a Mighty Mammoth... The Pushcart War is a book both children and adults will enjoy reading more than once.

Delightful, outrageous, strategically logical but humorous, this story of 222 pages is a fast and fun read! There are no teenage protagonists, but masses of unnamed kids do their part. Can a major metropolis have too many big rigs for its own good? Are the streets now the private preserve of Mighty Mammoths and other predatory trucks? Or do taxis, cars, pedestrians and even those lowly Pushcarts have an equal right to enjoy and use the congested thoroughfares? Do we really need these isolated vendors, perambulating along the curbs? But of course! Think of the valuable contribution to Society which they perform, those lonely capitalists faithfully following their sacred rounds to reach their loyal customers in all weather.

Well, the tenuous status quo has been seriously threatened. The Three (biggest trucking companies) have created a Master Plan, by which they conspire to remove the meance of the humble pushcarts once and for all. By direct violence if necesary or by stealth, by bribery with a touch of intimidation--whatever it takes. Ah, but these spirited souls who roll their wares in a hostile or indifferent world refuse to surrender quietly. Orangized by wiley Maxie, the Pushcart King, and morally inspired by the apple lady, General Anna, the pushcart vendors strike back privately and later stage a publically- appealing Peace Demonstration. They unite to create traffic chaos, while preserving their ambulatory lifestyle. Too bad such bizarre circumstances could never be repeated. I mean, really happen. A lighthearted spoof on disorganized crime, which will entertain kids of all ages!

I read Jean Merrill's The Pushcart War when I was in the fifth grade and loved it. I remember it as one of the books that started me to reading, and so, I wanted to reread it now, years later. It hasn't diminished a bit. In fact, I may like it more.

It's an absurd story, saturated with humor. The trucks have decided to take over the streets of New York, and the first target is the motley crew of pushcart drivers. The pushcarts won't be pushed around, though. These eccentrics such as General Anna, Morris the Florist, Frank the Flower, and Maxie Hammerman, the Pushcart King, fight back with every means possible with hilarious results.

The books is so entertaining, but there is some depth to it. At its base, it reveals the absurdity of humanity and our petty drives and acts of selfishness that escalate even into war. There is a lot here for adults. There is also a lot of lessonse to be learned by children. It's truly a book for everyone to laugh at and learn from.

This is the best book I have ever read. I picked an old edition off of a discard cart at my school library and it came in handy when my family car broke down in 85 degree weather in the middle of nowhere.All the characters were great (Maxie Hammerman, General Anna, Moe Mammoth/AKA Big Moe, Mr. Livergreen, The Tiger, Mayor Emmet P. Cudd,The Police Commitioner, Frank the Flower, Morris the Florist, Harry the Hot Dog, Mr. Jarusalem, Wenda Gambling, the children of New York City, Mack,etc) I can't belive I waited almost 13 years to read it!

I am 12 years old, my birthday is in 11 days, and I have read a great many books. Many more in fact than a lot of adults. The Pushcart War is my favorite book. It had descriptive terms and colorful characters. I felt like I was one of the Pushcart Peddlers. I have read this book many times, enjoying it more every time. My friend and I used to get 2 copies of the book from the library and sit and read to each other while the other followed along. We found great fun in this and our teacher's and parent's loved us reading so much. I think every kid should read this book at least once.

Shortly before I made the jump from young adult books to adult novels and college texts, I read The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill and I've never been the same since. It was the late-60's/early-70's and I was attending elementary school in a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA. The area was politically to the right of moderate. This little volume was in the library of the school. I've never been able to get the story out of my head. People protesting perceived injustices. People destroying property to make a point. Sounds like monkeywrenching to me! The story of the war between the pushcarts and the trucks in NY City is as relevant now as it was 30 years ago. Lot's of elementary school kids around our fine nation would benefit from reading this fine book. Donate a copy to your local school library. Gift suggestion for a family that reads: get the pre-teens in the family a copy of The Pushcart War and get the adults a copy of Ed Abbey's The Monkeywrench Gang.