The 'Me' Decade and the Third Great Awakening

The "Me" Decade and the Third Great Awakening

Cover of August 23, 1976 issue of New York magazine in which the essay first appeared
Author	Tom Wolfe
Country	United States
Language	English
Published	23 August 1976 (1976-08-23)

"The 'Me' Decade and the Third Great Awakening" is an influential essay by American author Tom Wolfe, in which Wolfe coined the phrase "'Me' Decade", a term that became common as a descriptor for the decade of the 1970s. The essay was first published as the in the August 23, 1976 issue of New York magazine and later appeared in his collection Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine.

In one of the essay's most famous passages, exemplifying his style of description, Wolfe called Jimmy Carter a "Missionary lectern-pounding Amen ten-finger C-major-chord Sister-Martha-at-the-Yamaha-keyboard loblolly Baptist."

The term "Me Decade" describes a general new attitude of Americans in the 1970s, in the direction of atomized individualism and away from communitarianism, in clear contrast with social values prevalent in the United States during the 1960s.

Wolfe asserts the disappearance of the socioeconomic class he calls the "proletariat", in parallel with the concurrent appearance of an American "lower middle class". He cites the economic boom of postwar America as affording the average American a new sense of self-determination and individuation associated with the widespread economic prosperity. Wolfe describes the resulting abandoning of communal, progressive, and New Deal-style politics as "taking the money and running". He traces the preoccupation with self and self-development back to the European gentry. Wolfe states that the "chivalric tradition" and the philosophy behind "the finishing school" are inherently dedicated to the building and forming of personal character and conduct.