First published in 1932, The Taxi-Dance Hall is Paul Goalby Cressey&;s fascinating study of Chicago&;s urban nightlife&;as seen through the eyes of the patrons, owners, and dancers-for-hire who frequented the city&;s notoriously seedy &;taxi-dance&; halls. Taxi-dance halls, as the introduction notes, were social centers where men could come and pay to dance with &;a bevy of pretty, vivacious, and often mercenary&; women. Ten cents per dance was the usual fee, with half the proceeds going to the dancer and the other half to the owner of the taxi-hall. Cressey&;s study includes detailed maps of the taxi-dance districts, illuminating interviews with dancers, patrons, and owners, and vivid analyses of local attempts to reform the taxi-dance hall and its attendees. Cressey&;s study reveals these halls to be the distinctive urban consequence of tensions between a young, diverse, and economically independent population at odds with the restrictive regulations of Prohibition America. Thick with sexual vice, ethnic clashes, and powerful undercurrents of class, The Taxi-Dance Hall is a landmark example of Chicago sociology, perfect for scholars and history buffs alike.