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Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There
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Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There
Author: David Brooks

Book Information
Publisher: Simon Schuster
Book Type: Paperback
Rating:

ISBN-13: 9780684853789 - ISBN-10: 0684853787
Publication Date: 3/6/2001
Pages: 288


Other Versions of this Book: Hardcover, Hardcover

Book Description:
Do you believe that spending $15,000 on a media center is vulgar, but that spending $15,000 on a slate shower stall is a sign that you are at one with the Zenlike rhythms of nature? Do you work for one of those visionary software companies where people come to work wearing hiking boots and glacier glasses, as if a wall of ice were about to come sliding through the parking lot? If so, you might be a Bobo.

In his bestselling work of "comic sociology," David Brooks coins a new word, Bobo, to describe today's upper class -- those who have wed the bourgeois world of capitalist enterprise to the hippie values of the bohemian counterculture. Their hybrid lifestyle is the atmosphere we breathe, and in this witty and serious look at the cultural consequences of the information age, Brooks has defined a new generation.

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Top Member Book Reviews

Cathy A. (csa) wrote on 9/30/2005...

2 member(s) found this review helpful.

An entertaining look at yuppy culture.
You've seen them: They sip double-tall, nonfat lattes, chat on cell phones, and listen to NPR while driving their immaculate SUVs to Pottery Barn to shop for $48 titanium spatulas. They tread down specialty cheese aisles in top-of-the-line hiking boots and think nothing of laying down $5 for an olive-wheatgrass muffin. They're the bourgeois bohemians--"Bobos"--an unlikely blend of mainstream culture and 1960s-era counterculture that, according to David Brooks, represents both America's present and future: "These Bobos define our age. They are the new establishment. Their hybrid culture is the atmosphere we all breathe. Their status codes now govern social life." Amusing stereotypes aside, they're an "elite based on brainpower" and merit rather than pedigree or lineage: "Dumb good-looking people with great parents have been displaced by smart, ambitious, educated, and antiestablishment people with scuffed shoes."

Bob R. wrote on 1/30/2007...

1 member(s) found this review helpful.

A very humorous and insgightful look at ourselves (or, at least a large subset of ourselves). You'll probably want to read parts out loud to your closest companions.


Please Rate these Book Reviews

Brian B. (nonfriction) wrote on 6/12/2008...


A great look at what happens when crunchy-granola types start making a lot of money. Perfect update companion to the similarly humerous sociological look at the well-to-do in the Preppy Handbook.

Jennifer E. (Rugger) wrote on 12/21/2005...


Really good read describing this group


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