Bio
My name is Dylan Gottlieb, and I write and teach about the history of cities and capitalism in modern America as an assistant professor in the History Department at Bentley University.
My book, Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers, and Gourmands Who Conquered New York, was published by Harvard University Press in 2026. It reveals how the rise of Wall Street in the 1980s lured a generation of young upstarts to New York, fostering new forms of work, leisure, and politics, and, ultimately, produced our age of inequality.
My research was awarded the Herman E. Krooss Prize for Best Dissertation in Business History from the Business History Conference. Articles and papers drawn from my dissertation have received the Raymond A. Mohl Award from the Urban History Association and the Catherine Bauer Wurster Prize from the Society of American City and Regional Planning History. My research has also been supported by fellowships and grants from the American Historical Association, the University of Virginia, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Hagley Museum & Library, Business History Conference, and the Graduate Fund for Excellence at Temple University.
My writing has been published in the New York Times, Journal of American History, Enterprise & Society, Journal of Urban History, Washington Post, Gastronomica, Utne Reader, Public Seminar, as well as in a number of edited collections. I am also co-host of Who Makes Cents? A History of Capitalism Podcast.
I graduated from Vassar College in 2008. In 2013, I received an MA from Temple University, and in 2015, I received an MA from Princeton University. In 2020, I received my PhD from Princeton.
When I'm not working, I can be found playing guitar with my band, baking sourdough bread, or hanging at the playground with my kids, June and Ruth.
Awards and Honors
Schoff Memorial Fund Subvention, The University Seminars, Columbia UniversityFellowship in Contemporary Urban History, FZH-Hamburg Institute for Advanced StudyAlbert J. Beveridge Research Grant, American Historical AssociationCatherine Bauer Wurster Prize for best article on planning history in last two years, Society for American City and Regional Planning HistoryHerman E. Krooss Prize for Best Dissertation in Business History, Business History ConferenceNEH-Hagley Fellowship in Business, Culture, and Society, Hagley Museum and LibraryNational Fellowship, Jefferson Scholars Foundation, University of VirginiaRaymond A. Mohl Conference Paper Award, Urban History AssociationJohn Edwin Pomfret Fellowship in History, Princeton UniversityUniversity Fellowship, Princeton UniversityScholarly Contributions and Creative Productions
Journal Articles
Gottlieb, D. (2021). Krooss Prize dissertation summary: “Yuppies: Young Urban Professionals and the Making of Postindustrial New York”. Enterprise & Society, (22) Gottlieb, D. (2019). "Hoboken is Burning: Yuppies, Arson, and Displacement in the Postindustrial City,". Journal of American History, (106) 390-415. Gottlieb, D. (2015). Review Essay: "'Closer to Heaven’: Race and Diversity in Suburban America,". Journal of Urban History, (41) Gottlieb, D. (2015). "'Dirty, Authentic…Delicious’: Yelp, Mexican Restaurants, and the Appetites of Philadelphia’s New Middle Class,". Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies, (15) , 39-48. Gottlieb, D. (2013). "Sixth Avenue Heartache: Race, Commemoration, and the Colorblind Consensus in Zephyrhills, Florida, 2003-2004,". Journal of Urban History, (39) 13-Nov , 1085-1115. Books
Gottlieb, D. (2026). Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers and Gourmands Who Conquered New York Cambridge, MA: Harvard University PressBook Chapters
Gottlieb, D. (2025). "Making the Liberal Media: Journalism' Class Transformation Since the 1960s" Mastery and Drift: Professional-Class Liberals since the 1960s, eds. Brent Cebul and Lily Geismer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (Link)Digital and Electronic Media, Social Media, Blogs, Podcasts
Gottlieb, D. 2026. "How Yuppies Changed America" Gottlieb, D. 2026. "White-Collar Sweatshops" Gottlieb, D. 2019. ""How Gentrification Caused America’s Cities to Burn," The Washington Post" Gottlieb, D. 2024. "Who Makes Cents: A History of Capitalism Podcast" Presentations
Gottlieb, D. (2026). ““Sound History: The Pitfalls and Possibilities of Podcasting”” Presented at the American Political History Conference Washington, DC Gottlieb, D. (2026). “"Rat Race: Finance and Fitness in 1980s New York”” Presented at the Organization of American Historians Philadelphia Gottlieb, D. (2026). ““Not All Women Can Have It All: The Yuppie Care Crisis and the Rise of a New Urban Service Class”” Presented at the Labor: Studies in Working Class History Labor's Capitalism Conference New Orleans Gottlieb, D. (2025). “Takeover: Jewish Law Firms and the Work of Financialization” Presented at the Business History Conference Atlanta Gottlieb, D. (2025). “‘It Pissed Me Off’: Media and Anti-Liberalism in 1980s New York” Presented at the Urban History Association ConferenceGottlieb, D. (2025). “Roundtable panelist, “New Histories of New York City, 1970–2000”” Presented at the Urban History Association Conference Los Angeles Gottlieb, D. (2025). “Sweatshop: The Work of Financialization at Wall Street Law Firms” Presented at the Lawyers and Capitalism Conference University of Zurich Gottlieb, D. (2025). “Panelist, “The Role of Unions in Modern Capitalism: A U.S. Perspective”” Presented at the Ethics@work, Hoffman Center for Business Ethics, Bentley UniversityGottlieb, D. (2024). “Pipeline: Financialization and Wall Street’s 1980s Recruiting Boom” Presented at the Economic History Seminar Columbia University Gottlieb, D. (2024). “Yuppies: A Social History of Financialization” Presented at the History and Political Economy Project Neoliberalism’s Citadels and Chokepoints Conference Boston University Gottlieb, D. (2024). “Making the Liberal Media: Journalism’s Class Transformation since the 1960s” Presented at the History Department American Political History Institute Seminar Boston University Gottlieb, D. (2024). “Roundtable: "Place, Space, and the History of Capitalism"” Presented at the Business History Conference Business History Conference Providence, RI Gottlieb, D. (2023). “1-800-BE-ANGRY: Media and White-Ethnic Conservatism in New York"” Presented at the Columbia University and CUNY-Graduate Center New Histories of Post-1960s New York City New York, NY Gottlieb, D. (2023). “Discussant and Q&A” Presented at the Hoboken Historical Museum Discussant after theatrical performance of "Yuppies Invade My House at Dinnertime" Hoboken, NJ Gottlieb, D. (2022). “New Directions in the Political and Social History of New England” Presented at the New England Historical Association New England Historical Association Conference Bentley Univ. Service
Service: Department
Coordinator for History Department Majors - PresentCommittee Member for History Department Lecturer Search Committee 2023-09-01 - 2024-03-31Attendee, Meeting for Admitted Student Day Open House 2023-05-01 - 2023-05-31Service: Professional
Committee Chair for SACRPH Alison Isenberg Dissertation Colloquium - PresentCommittee Member for Catherine Bauer Wurster article prize committee, SACRPH 2023-05-01 - 2023-11-30Conference/Workshop Organizer for SACRPH Conference 2021-01-01 - 2022-12-31Editor, Journal for The Metropole, Urban History Association Weblog 2019-01-01 - 2022-12-31 for Reviewer, Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies 2018-01-01 - Present for Reviewer, Journal of Urban History 2016-01-01 - Present for Reviewer, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 2016-01-01 - PresentEditor (Associate), Journal for The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities, Rutgers-Camden 2015-01-01 - 2015-12-31Service: University
Committee Member for BASICS Transdisciplinary Curriculum Project 2024-09-01 - 2025-01-31Senate Member for Faculty Senate - PresentCommittee Member for Salary and Benefits Committee - PresentPanel Member for Bentley Learning and Teaching Colloquium Panel: "It's Time to Rethink 'Office Hours'" - PresentCommittee Member for Honors Program Faculty Council 2023-08-15 - PresentGuest Speaker for First Year Academic Discovery Event: The Wicked Problems of [the Future of] Work 2022-12-01 - 2022-12-10
