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Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers, and Gourmands Who Conquered New York
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 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 1980 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.
Yuppies may have been a classic 1980s stereotype, but they were also a very real 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 1980 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.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
352 pages, Hardcover
Published May 12, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Review of advance copy
A history of the Wall Street financiers, brokers, and attorneys who remade New York City, and the nation, into their own image.
Yuppies came from elite colleges (usually MBA's or law school grads, but sometimes liberal arts majors) who were drawn to New York City by elite firms, usually with the help of college career centers, earned large sums of money. New York City and landlords catered to this growing group of wealthy people; but it came at a cost.
Many Yuppies worked themselves to severe burn out and while they made big money, it cost others who lived in NYC and the surrounding areas to lose their apartments, whether through exorbitant rents, arson, or strong arm tactics.
This was a good book and I highly recommend it if you want to learn more about Yuppies.
Yuppies came from elite colleges (usually MBA's or law school grads, but sometimes liberal arts majors) who were drawn to New York City by elite firms, usually with the help of college career centers, earned large sums of money. New York City and landlords catered to this growing group of wealthy people; but it came at a cost.
Many Yuppies worked themselves to severe burn out and while they made big money, it cost others who lived in NYC and the surrounding areas to lose their apartments, whether through exorbitant rents, arson, or strong arm tactics.
This was a good book and I highly recommend it if you want to learn more about Yuppies.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Highly readable nonfiction account of how yuppies and the finance industry that employed them, changed New York City in the late 1970s and 1980s. I especially enjoyed the chapters that focused on the Yuppie lifestyle - gourmet foods and jogging specifically.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Readable and compelling history of the rise of young urban professionals in NYC as a symptom (and enabler) of financialization.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews