Insightful and immensely entertaining.
A cultural history of Yuppies, the elite young urban professionals of the 1980s.
McGrath, the former editor-in-chief of Philadelphia magazine and author of MTV: The Making of a Revolution, explores the rise of a highly educated subgroup of the baby boomer generation that became known as the Yuppies. The election of 1980 was pivotal for many reasons. “In rejecting Teddy Kennedy and Jimmy Carter and electing Ronald Reagan as president,” writes the author, “American voters had sent a clear message: The status quo wasn’t acceptable.” Over the course of the decade, as McGrath engagingly details, the Yuppies continued to make 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. The author also explores specific trends that arose during this time, including the transformations that took place in neighborhoods of large cities across the country, including New York City’s SoHo, Chelsea, and Upper West Side; Boston’s Back Bay and South End; and San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury. 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.Pub Date: June 4, 2024
ISBN: 9781538725993
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 29, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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