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

During periods of population succession, contested meanings and debates over ownership and authenticity characterize the identity of place. The title of Corey Dolgon's insightful book The End of the Hamptons refers to a constant refrain among settlers on the Eastern tip of New York's Long Island, as each generation of arrivals hypocritically bemoans its potential displacement by an even newer set of interlopers. During the 17^th century, Dutch and English colonists cleared the ancient hunting grounds of the Shinnecock and Mantaukett Indians for agricultural production, but by the early 1900s European farmers would complain that Veblen's leisure classes had transformed their cropland into lawn tennis courts, golf courses, polo grounds, and equestrian corrals. A century later, the moneyed hyper-bourgeoisie of the 1990s' stock-market boom would continue these leisure pursuits, yet simultaneously decry the wear-and tear of ball fields where Ecuadorian, Columbian and Costa Rican immigrants maintain their own sporting traditions playing in Latino League soccer matches.

Dolgon creatively examines how various constituencies have historically made claims over the meaning of place through cultural invention, class power, and the manipulation of the built environment in the East End towns (Southampton, East Hampton, Bridgehampton, Sag Harbor, Montauk and others) that make up the Hamptons. During the late 19^th century, bohemian "pioneers" such as Walt Whitman sought out the "unspoiled" natural beauty of Montauk for creative inspiration and the area became a summertime retreat for painters and other artists. Attracted to the growth of summer resorts and cottage rentals, bourgeoisie vacationers from the city soon followed, and the urban elites who superseded them built the mansions and country clubs that made the Hamptons an aristocratic haven for New York's rich and famous.

In later decades postwar development attracted waves of the managerial classes escaping the city, and this white flight spawned a daisy chain of gentrification that would eventually transform the quiet tranquility of these island towns into what has become an orgy of McMansions, conspicuous consumption and celebrity lavishness. During recent fights to retain the imagined authenticity of the Hamptons' countrified mystique in the face of such excess, so-called environmental groups emphasize "quality-of-life" issues regarding the aesthetic value of its traditional bucolic landscape. The hypocrisy displayed by such groups is notable: as Dolgon observes, "the majority of support emanates from people who have migrated within the past few decades and whose agendas come from a combination of "nimbyism," economic self-interest and a general sense that the time to stop development and preserve the natural landscape began the moment they arrived."(65) Led by these "progressive" elites, the preservation of the area's natural beauty in horse farms, vineyards and open vistas fulfills the romantic dreams of newly-arrived affluent urbanites. Meanwhile, a controlled growth agenda actually promotes upscale residential and commercial development even as it hopelessly struggles to limit the erosion of the East End's iconic rural character. Perhaps not surprisingly, the successfulness of this quasi-preservation campaign only attracts more summer tourists, second-home buyers, retirees and self-indulgent pop stars.

Yet as Dolgon reminds us, each successive wave of conquest in the Hamptons creates its own set of contradictions, conflicts and challenges. For example, the year-round low-wage economy generated by the growth of full-time residents in the Hamptons has necessitated the development of a permanent enclave of otherwise would-be-seasonal migrant laborers in the area. These mostly Latino workers from Mexico, Central and South America, are the construction workers and day laborers who build the East End's McMansions enjoyed by the affluent classes, and the domestics who clean their bathrooms and care for their children. Meanwhile, these workers themselves live in cramped substandard housing and are more welcomed by their wealthier counterparts as cheap labor than as local neighbors. But in spite of its second-class status in the community, the presence of...