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

I recently finished reading The End of the Hamptons. I found it fascinating reading, scholarly yet accessible to the general reader. Dolgon creates a strong sense of place, of history and of the present day class and cultural conflicts that continue to shape the Hamptons.He gets beneath the glitter and the stereotypes to uncover the forces at work. As a Cape Codder concerned about development and the "end of Cape Cod" as I know it I found the book to have relevance for communities far beyond the Hamptons. The question of whose voices are heard in the continual struggle for land and resources is a central question confronting us all.

As Dolgon writes in the introduction, "the [Hamptons] area is emblematic of our nation's most salient historical themes: early European and Native American encounters; rapid changes in economic development and physical environments; the constant and shifting migration of world populations to the United States; the formation of racial, ethnic, regional, and national identities; and the vast divisions between rich and poor on local and global levels." After providing historical background, Dolgon describes recent events: the stuggles and interactions of Native Americans, environmentalists, fishermen, service workers, and the uber-wealthy. Such struggles and interactions are going on all over America, and all over the world. With this in mind, the book is truly worth the time.

Dolgon strips away the Vanity Fair-style pretension and name-dropping absurdity so often associated with this topic and exposes a far more interesting Hamptons - a Hamptons of richly textured history, colorful and varied people, and deeply ingrained dichotomies, contradictions, struggles and patterns of inequality. Dolgon is original. He has chosen the more challenging path for this work. To be sure, a trashy love letter to New York Society would have found its summer readership. But Dolgon takes the less worn path, getting under the skin of The Hamptons and examining the area through the lens of its people and through multiple generations of social change. The result is a fascinating book and an original take on an area whose depth and meaning is so often overlooked for its pretty face. This is an excellent book.