The End of the Hamptons

Winner of the 2005 Book Prize from the Association for Humanist Sociology"Takes us beyond the much-romanticized beaches of Long Island to the rich entrepreneurs and their McMansions, the Latino workers, and the stubborn indigenous residents refusing to disappear. The book is important because it is in so many ways a microcosm of the nation." --Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States"Delicious and intellectually nutritious as a Montauk seafood fiesta. Sharp and as jolting as the jitney journey from Manhattan, it is perfect beach reading, or enticing fodder for the downtime of long winters."--Neil Smith, author ofAmerican Empire: Roosevelt's Geographer and the Prelude to Globalization"Dolgon tells a history that is balanced and agenda-free." --Foreword Magazine"[A] very good book. It offers the reader an insightful political-economic analysis of eastern Long Island's microcosm of a class and ethnically divided society.... This is a fascinating book for scholars interested in how all these factors play out in a fabled locality."--Antipode, Susan S. Fainstein, Columbia University"This is a compelling and complex portrait of the conflicts that have given shape to this exclusive enclave's past, present, and future."--Culture Shock"A rare glitz-free guided tour of the Unnoticed Hamptons."--Pop Matters"A great read. Dolgon portrays the Hamptons as they really are, not as an idealized landscape that is the sole domain of the ultra rich but as a place where both rich and poor live and often struggle to co-exist in this supposed vacation paradise. An important book for anyone interested in how suburbs and small towns reflect a newly conceived American dream." --Setha Low, author of Behind the Gates: Life, Security and the Pursuit of Happiness in Fortress America"A wonderful look at one of America's most class-riven communities. The layers upon layers of neo-natives, one atop the other, tell a story oft repeated throughout the nation. An essential addition to the bookshelf of American leisure and urban planning." --Hal Rothman, author of Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the 21st Century"Dolgon's book is the perfect medicine for readers who are suffering from celebrity overdose. Informed by four and a half centuries of conflict between locals and conquerors, his rich and lucid picture of the 'other' Hamptons completely demolishes the public image of the region as a playground for the uber-rich and the lumpen-bourgeoisie."--Andrew Ross, editor of Anti-Americanism"This is a compelling and complex portrait of the conflicts that have given shape to this exclusive enclave's past, present and future." --Culture Shock"Dolgon takes us way past our limited view of the East End and into much more interesting territory. . . . This well-researched book is loaded with tons of facts that you never learned in your share house." --WoodburyIn this absorbing account of New York's famous vacation playground, Corey Dolgon goes beyond the celebrity tales and polo games to tell us the story of this complex and contentious land. From the displacement of Native Americans by the Puritans to the first wave of Manhattan elites who built the Summer Colony, to the current infusion of telecommuting Manhattanites who now want to live there year-round, the story of the Hamptons is a vicious cycle of supposed paradise lost.Drawing on this fabled land's history, The End of the Hamptons provides a fascinating portrait of current controversies: the Native Americans fighting over land claims and threatening to build a casino, the environmental activists clashing with the McMansion builders, and the Latino day laborers and working-class natives trying to eke out a living in an ever-increasingly expensive town.

Corey Dolgon is Associate Professor of Sociology at Worcester State College