Did It! From Yippie To Yuppie Hardcover by Pat Thomas

Product Details

• Publisher: Fantagraphics (2017-09-05)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 272 pages
• ISBN-13: 9781606998922
• Item Weight: 567.0 grams
• Dimensions: 0.0 x 0.0 x 0.0 cm

This is the first art book and biography of Yippie Jerry Rubin.

Did It! From Yippie to Yuppie: Jerry Rubin, an American Revolutionary is an oversized oral & visual history of the infamous and ubiquitous Rubin – the first ever biography of the co-founder of the Yippies, Anti-Vietnam War radical, Chicago 8 defendant, New Age/Self Help proponent, and social-networking pioneer.  

Based upon over 75 original interviews with his co-conspirators, friends and foes, this book not only explores the life and times of Rubin, but the generation that consisted of idealistic firebrands in the 1960s, segued into the Me generation in the 1970s, and became full blown capitalists engaged in the 1980s. 

Those interviewed include fellow Chicago 8 Defendants, participants in the Berkeley Free Speech Movement; Paul Krassner, Judy Gumbo, Nancy Kurshan, John & Leni Sinclair, Bobby Seale, Rennie Davis, Lee Weiner, Country Joe McDonald and dozens more reveal, in their own words, vibrant stories of the era. Often left out in histories of the radical sixties, twenty women speak out in their own voice! Also chronicled is the 1970’s New Age Movement with commentary from Stella Resnick, Werner Erhard, Mimi Leonard and others. 

Bizarre interactions with luminaries including Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Timothy Leary, and John Lennon are described via interviews and diaries (found in Rubin’s personal archives  and published here for the first time) along with photographs and correspondence with Norman Mailer, Eldridge Cleaver, Mayor Daley and the Weathermen. Also explored is the oft-misunderstood relationship between Rubin and his partner-in-crime Abbie Hoffman with controversial insights into their Yippie vs. Yuppie debates. 

About the Author

Pat Thomas is the author of Listen, Whitey! The Sights & Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975, Did It! Jerry Rubin: An American Revolutionary, and co-editor of Invitation to Openness: The Jazz & Soul Photography of Les McCann 1960-1980. In co-operation with the Estate of Allen Ginsberg, Thomas edited the visual tome Material Wealth: The Personal Archives of Allen Ginsberg, with a forward by poet Anne Waldman, which won a PEN award in 2024. Thomas was the co-editor of Ernie in Kovacsland: Drawings, and Photographs from Television's Original Genius and Grievous Angels, Trout Masks, and American Beauties: 1970s Rock & Roll Photography of Ginny Winn with an introduction by Maria Muldaur. He lives on America’s left coast.

Jerry Rubin (1938-1994) was an American social activist, anti-Vietnam War leader, enemy of Richard Nixon and countercultural icon during the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1980s, he pioneered social-networking parties at Studio 54.