Colonizing Southampton

Reviews / Votes

"In this history, Mr. Goddard has reached beyond the local to produce an analytic study of business interests and conflict. He has deciphered the multiple strands of activity at play and provided judicious explanations of behavior ... this detailed book makes significant contributions to our historical understanding ... Goddard has forged the often disparate pieces of Southampton history into an interpretive whole, and he has made sense out of the dramas in the town's legal, business, and social history." - East Hampton Star

"Colonizing Southampton ... takes a real look at the historical and economic legacy of the Hamptons, even when it has reared its ugly head." - Southampton Press

"Goddard's treatment of local history is sophisticated, well informed, and analytically sound. He handles complex concepts adroitly and has made an important contribution to the literature on local history, which has too often been burdened with parochial perceptions and, occasionally, by outright boosterism." - John A. Strong, author of The Montaukett Indians of Eastern Long Island

"What I find extraordinary is the author's ability to combine depth and breadth in this book. As a person who was born and raised in Southampton and a student of its social dynamics, I particularly admire Goddard's grasp of the often fraught relations between the area's wealthy resort population and its year-round residents. His insights into the economic and social ramifications of their symbiotic but wary relationship are truly impressive, as are his lively portraits of the major figures in that drama. He has treated local history with a rare seriousness and makes an important contribution to social history in America at the end of the nineteenth century." - Mary Cummings, author of Southampton