From Joke to Zeitgeist: How Yuppies Created America as We Know It

Tom McGrath shares 5 key insights from Triumph of the Yuppies: America, the Eighties, and the Creation of an Unequal Nation.

Photo by Ruthson Zimmerman on Unsplash

When was the last time you thought about yuppies? The young urban professional is no longer so iconic, but in the 80’s this cohort seemed to be at the center of the culture. How the idealistic hippies became careerist yuppies and changed the country in the process is the subject of the new book Triumph of the Yuppies: America, the Eighties, and the Creation of an Unequal Nation by

Tom McGrath

. Tom is the former editor-in-chief of Philadelphia magazine, and former chief content officer of Metro Corp., the parent company of Philadelphia and Boston magazines. He also writes the

Common Good

newsletter on Substack. Here he is with 5 of his big ideas.

1. Yuppies were superficial, but they weren’t trivial.

If you’re old enough to remember the 80s (or even if you’ve only heard about Yuppies decades after), the term conjures an image of sharply dressed young professionals obsessed with money and status. That’s not wrong. Yuppies were materialistic and valued things that sent a message about who they were—whether it was a Cuisinart in the kitchen, a BMW in the garage, or the latest gadget from Sharper Image. Yuppies preferred the sophistication of city living to the blandness of suburbia, and beginning in the late ’70s, they began flooding into previously working-class neighborhoods in cities like New York, Boston, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Chicago. They were the original foodies, fueling the latest trendy restaurants. They were fitness fanatics, turning Jane Fonda into a cultural icon.