The Striking Cabbies of Cairo and Other Stories

Download or read book The Striking Cabbies of Cairo and Other Stories written by John T. Chalcraft and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book charts new directions in Egyptian social history, providing the first systematic account of adaptation and protest among crafts and service workers in Egypt in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Using a wealth of new sources, John T. Chalcraft challenges conventional notions of craft stagnation and decline by recovering the largely unknown histories of crafts workers' restructuring in the face of world economic integration, and their petitions, demonstrations, and strike-action at a time of state-building and colonial rule. Chalcraft demonstrates the economic importance of petty producers and service providers, and tells the story of widespread collective assertion couched in new discourses of citizenship and nationalism. He also gives a new interpretation of the end of the guilds in Egypt and addresses larger debates about unevenness under capitalism.