“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

“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

 In this absorbing account of New York’s famous vacation playground, Corey Dolgon goes beyond the celebrity tales of P. Diddy, Lizzie Grubman, Calvin Klein, and their polo games to tell us the story of this complex and contentious land.  Dolgon argues that Long Island’s East End has a long and tortured past, rife with class struggle between the haves and the have-nots. This turmoil is a direct result of the Hamptons’ unique founding and history. As wave after wave of immigrants have settled on the island, a pattern of anxiety and exclusion has risen to the surface, compelling each new group of land owners to spurn the incoming group of potential residents. 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.

MAY 2005, 304 pages • 23 illus.

What are reviewers saying about the book?

East Hampton Star

Bostonia Magazine--Boston University's Alumni Magazine 

Z Magazine

New York Press--New York City Alternative Press

New York Sun

PopMatters

Woodbury Magazine