It is hard now to remember back to those traffic-choked days of '76 (1976, that is) when aggressive truckers had a master plan, secretly backed by powerful politicians, to entirely dominate the streets of New York. All that stood in their way was a gallant little band of pushcart peddlers, determined to defend the freedom of the streets.

At first their fragile pushcarts were crushed like matchboxes under the mammoth tires of advancing trucks, and the war seemed lost. But that was before the development of the old fashioned pea-shooter into an effective secret weapon.

The truckers had not reckoned on the sly strategies of Maxie Hammerman, the Pushcart King, or on the formidable spirit of General Anna, who would have refused to let Napoleon himself upset her applecart.

Exciting? Yes. Funny? Yes—but with the seriousness of satire, man's least fettered way of commenting on his own foibles.

From the dust jacket