Announcing My Brand New Book About the 1980s
How '80s Yuppies created the troubled country we live in today
Hi All,
I’m sending out this special edition of Common Good because I’m excited to announce my brand new book.
It’s called Triumph of the Yuppies: America, the Eighties, and the Creation of an Unequal Nation. It’s available for pre-order now, and it just received a rave review from Kirkus Reviews.
The book is the first-ever history of much buzzed-about (and much-maligned!) 1980s Yuppies — the elite, uber-educated segment of the Baby Boomer generation.
In it, I chart the birth, rise, triumph and (seeming) fall of Yuppies during the 1980s, while also laying out how Yuppies essentially created the world we live in today — from gentrified cities and lifestyle obsessions like food and fitness to money culture and the greatest income inequality in a century.
Last week, Kirkus gave the book a rare STARRED REVIEW, calling it “insightful and immensely entertaining:”
Over the course of the decade, as McGrath engagingly details, the Yuppies [made] choices that significantly influenced American society, choices that still resonate today. “What Yuppies did, ate, bought, thought, and aspired to impacted everyone,” he writes. “Yuppies mattered.”
McGrath cogently explains the economic and political environment that America was facing during this time and the actions this group took in an attempt to set themselves apart from previous generations, as well as the ironies involved in many of their decisions…
Although the 1980s is remembered as the decade of excess, as McGrath notes, “in truth, many, if not most, Boomers were struggling.” The author examines how those without college degrees were affected by the political and economic decisions of the time, with particular focus on the widening cultural divide that arose and contributes to the “unequal and unsettled America we live in today.”
From Dallas to Dynasty, Jane Fonda to Madonna, readers who witnessed the rise and fall of the Yuppies will appreciate this trip down memory lane.
Insightful and immensely entertaining.
My thanks to Kirkus for this wonderful review.
The book will be published in June, but pre-orders mean a lot when it comes to helping a book succeed. I hope you’ll reserve your copy of Triumph of the Yuppies right now. Thanks!