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Review Quotes:
Dylan Gottlieb has given us a brilliant account of the transformation of New York City in the late years of the twentieth century. Original, compelling, and written with wry humor,
Yuppies offers a vision of what was gained as well as what was lost in New York through the rise of finance.--Kim Phillips-Fein, author of
Fear City
Brief Description:
"Yuppies returns to 1980s New York, when a generation of young bankers, lawyers, and gentrifiers rebuilt the city, and the country, on massively unequal terms. Through their work, their lifestyles, and their politics, yuppies cemented Wall Street's takeover of American life and secured their place atop a brutal economic hierarchy."-- Provided by publisher.
Review Quotes:
The more interesting aspects of Gottlieb's tale are the consequences of financialisation to New York City: a trendy and competitive Manhattan dining culture, a seismic realignment in left versus right politics and even a boom in distance running...[he] tells his story through primary sources -- college newspaper clippings, career centre reports -- as well as with a handful of character vignettes and first-person interviews.--Sujeet Indap "Financial Times" (5/23/2026 12:00:00 AM)
Review Quotes:
A brilliant, important book.
Yuppies does something rare and valuable: It makes the 1980s feel immediate and unfinished rather than safely distant. We are still living inside the story it is telling, and Gottlieb makes that unmistakably clear...Outstanding.--Rick Atkinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of
An Army at Dawn
Review Quotes:
Gottlieb vividly demonstrates how the yuppie was not some passing 1980s trend but a historical phenomenon that radically reshaped our economic, cultural, and political landscapes. If you want to know how we ended up where we are today, read this fascinating, revelatory book.--Paulina Bren, author of
The Barbizon and She-Wolves: The Untold History of Women on Wall Street
Review Quotes:
At last, the social history of financialization has been written. No one seriously studying this period of US history will be able to ignore
Yuppies, which will also appeal to general readers.--Jonathan Levy, author of
Ages of American Capitalism: A History of the United States
Review Quotes:
A most excellent romp through recent New York history. Dylan Gottlieb's fascinating
Yuppies brings to life for a new generation of readers what constituted a proud yuppie existence like my own: an Upper West Side apartment, a Wall Street investment banking job, finishing the New York Marathon, fanatically shopping at Dean & DeLuca.--William D. Cohan, author of
House of Cards and
Power Failure
Review Quotes:
Fascinating...Dylan Gottlieb provides a cultural and political biography of the young urban professional.--Paul Renfro "New Republic" (6/11/2026 12:00:00 AM)
Review Quotes:
A fascinating read for anyone interested in yuppie culture and how the demographic affected New York City, in particular, and the country as a whole.--Amanda Ray "Library Journal" (3/27/2026 12:00:00 AM)
Review Quotes:
Readers who wish to immerse themselves in sights and sounds of 1980s New York...will find in Gottlieb a knowledgeable and witty tour guide.--Joel Harold Tannenbaum "Orange Blossom Ordinary" (3/26/2026 12:00:00 AM)
Review Quotes:
The book is more than a nostalgia tour through the years of Perrier and disco. It chronicles a social and a moral revolution from which America is still struggling to emerge.--Helen Andrews "Compact Magazine" (5/29/2026 12:00:00 AM)
Review Quotes:
Offers a fascinating, convincing explanation of how yuppyism came about, revealed itself in the workplace and society, and changed the Big Apple and the broader culture.--Andy Smarick "Washington Free Beacon" (6/7/2026 12:00:00 AM)
Review Quotes:
Offers a portrait of yuppie motivations with more nuance than simple consumerism.--Molly Fischer "New Yorker" (6/15/2026 12:00:00 AM)
Publisher Marketing:
One of the New Yorker's "Best Books of 2026 So Far"
How the rise of Wall Street in the 1980s lured a generation of young upstarts to New York, unleashing a political and cultural transformation whose national repercussions are still felt today.
Yuppies may have been a classic 1980s stereotype, but they were also a very real demographic: a wave of hundreds of thousands of highly educated young professionals that washed over New York during that decade. As Wall Street moved to the center of American life, it drew a generation of young people into its vortex. For the first time, banks recruited roughly one-third of graduating classes from top universities.
America's economy had a new main character. Young bankers extracted profits from waning industries, shattering the foundations on which stable middle-class employment had long rested. Yuppie lawyers devised deals and tax strategies that eroded workers' power and wages. As consumers, yuppies created new cultures of fitness and of excess, popularizing marathon running and fine dining as status markers. As city-dwellers, they were pioneers of gentrification. And as voters and political donors, yuppies engineered a takeover of local and national government, using their wealth to back candidates who would remake the country in their image.
Yuppies reminds us that we still live in the shadow of the greed-is-good 1980s: Our cities are playgrounds for the wealthy, and Wall Street and Washington remain locked in a tight embrace. Dylan Gottlieb's exquisite recounting leaves no doubt that the yuppie takeover of New York began a more unequal chapter in American life--one we continue writing today.
Review Citations:
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Library Journal 03/27/2026 pg. 1 (EAN 9780674248977, Hardcover)
Contributor Bio:Gottlieb, Dylan
Dylan Gottlieb is Assistant Professor of History at Bentley University. A cohost of
Who Makes Cents: A History of Capitalism Podcast, he has written for the
New York Times, the
Washington Post, Gotham, the
Journal of American History, and
Public Seminar.
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