The Pushcart War

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 ve

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 read

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.

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.

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.