The End of the Hamptons: Scenes from the Class Struggle in America's Paradise

by Corey Dolgon

Winner of the 2005 Book Prize from the Association for Humanist Sociology

A portrait of the contentious, controversial history of the Manhattan elite's favorite fabled summer playground

In 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 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.

Genres: Nonfiction

277 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2005

Reviews

[Constantia Munda]

Good for facts about Long Island, but could have gone deeper. Ex: No mention that The founders of Southampton were Separatist's fleeing Puritan Boston (Lynn/ Salem). That's why the first county in Massachusetts "Suffolk" is also the first County in New York. Suffolk means "South folk" from the UK. The Halsey House still stands today in Southampton that Thomas Halsey built in 1648.

A good social critique of the NY demographics that have moved through the area!!!

Love the details of Montaukett Sachem Wyndanch being an early deal maker that partnered with Lion Gardner to take over half of Connecticut ( The Ninanctics) and dominate the Native population.

Very Informative about Separatist movement in 1996 - "Peconic Now." Thanks for nailing corrupt politician Sheldon Silver ( 3 Men in a Room) as the cause for the defeat of both Staten Island's secession and Peconic's secession. With Sheldon thrown in jail and dead now (2022) Staten Islanders and East End Long Islanders should start again separating from the corrupt NY Empire State.

VOTE PECONIC NOW!!!!!

[Keith]

This book was not what I was expecting. Living on the East End of Long Island, and seeing the development encroach further and further each year, I was intrigued. Essentially, the book spends most of the time pulling the covers back on the "Hamptons" image, exposing the poverty and racial issues that plague the area. The problem I had was that the book was really repetitive, using the same case histories to make basically the same point - the point being that the American Indian, African American, and Latino population of the area are getting screwed. I don't want to downplay these issues as racism, a lack of middle-class jobs, and virtually no affordable housing are rampant in the area, but I don't feel like this book shed any new light. There is also a bit on the McMansion phenomena, and how the once rural area is becoming suburbia. The most interesting part of the book related to the effort of the 5 east end towns took to break away and form Peconic County - which never ended up happening. Perhaps I'm too close to the story - but I find myself skipping long passages.

[PJ]

the reviews here are too critical ... dolgon sheds new light on an old story in a way that codifies things residents have known for a while .. the author genuinely tries to document protest movements and organizing attempts that 20+years have rendered invisible. everything he says remains true. not as good as city of quartz, perhaps, but that's a high bar.

[Daniel]

most boring freaking ethnography I've ever read. I think that he was talking about, if I remember, ideological territorialization through mass immigration [not diaspora in this theoretical framework].

The separatist part was interesting