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This book is illustrated with history of Fire Island. Declared a national seashore in 1964, this barrier island is now managed by the National Park Service and has year-round residents as well as being visited by tourists and seasonal vacationers.
Fire Island is a string of communities and parks, gay and straight bars, boats and bridges, beach umbrellas and bungalows--all bound together by the pristine white sand of the island's beach. This 32-mile-long barrier island off the coast of Long Island has been defined by legendary shipwrecks and heroic lifesaving in the 19th century, but also kindled by menacing storms and a web of sociological intrigue as an upwardly mobile American middle class sought out vacation homes and coastal recreation during the 20th century. From cholera protests at the Surf Hotel in 1892 to a grassroots campaign to prevent a highway that ultimately established Fire Island National Seashore in 1964, Fire Island's history is a grand melodrama that has caught world attention.
Fire Island: a slim strip of land off the coast of New York, and a place of hedonism, reinvention, liberation. Arriving on the island after a break-up back home in England, scholar and poet Jack Parlett was beguiled by what he found. Here were the halcyon scenes of Frank O'Hara's poetry; the bars where Patricia Highsmith got drunk; the infamous cruising sites; and the dazzling beaches where couples had fallen in and out of love, free for a sun-kissed moment to be themselves in the time before gay liberation. Tracing Fire Island's rich history, Parlett leads the reader through the early days of the island's life as a discreet home for same-sex love, to the wild parties of the post-Stonewall disco era, to the residents' confrontation with the AIDS epidemic, and into a present where a host of new challenges threaten the island's future. Lyrical and vivid, Fire Island is a hymn to an iconic destination, and to the men and women whose ardour and determination spread freedom across its shores.
In the 1920s, newspapers and real estate developers colluded in a scheme to sell tiny vacation lots to subscribers. A zealous advertising campaign spawned a land-buying frenzy that sprouted dozens of waterfront summer colonies across the country. The resulting legal, social and environmental mayhem caused some of these communities to disappear or be drastically altered in character, while others managed to survive more or less intact. Drawing on newspaper accounts of the day, this book explores how the scheme eluded accusations of fraud, creating an assembly line for middle class resorts through a lucrative merger of real estate and journalism. Pell Lake, Wisconsin, serves as a case study that yields the best evidence for determining if it was all a scam. Told here for the first time, the story of this unusual alliance and the communities it created offers lessons for today's entrepreneurs, journalists, advertisers, real estate developers, environmentalists and anyone who has ever lived in a resort community.
The extraordinary career of George Catlett Marshall—America’s most distinguished soldier–statesman since George Washington—whose selfless leadership and moral character influenced the course of two world wars and helped define the American century. “I’ve read several biographies of Marshall, but I think [David] Roll’s may be the best of the bunch.”—Thomas E. Ricks, New York Times Book Review • “Powerful.”—The Wall Street Journal • “Enthralling.”—Andrew Roberts • “Important.”—William I. Hitchcock • “Majestic.”—Susan Page • “Engrossing.”—Andrew J. Bacevich • “Judicious.”—Walter Isaacson • “Definitive.”—Kirkus Winston Chu...
Small coastal communities stand up to the giant of mid-20th century urban development in this chronicle of a true David and Goliath drama. With its unspoiled, tranquil shorelines, Fire Island has been an oasis for vacationers for well over a century. But from the late 1930s into the early 1960s, it was an obsession for Robert Moses, the political power broker and "master builder" who reshaped much of New York. His urban development projects helped create Long Island’s suburbs, and he dreamed of turning Fire Island into an extension of Ocean Parkway. Standing up to those ambitions were the seventeen individualistic communities of Fire Island, unified in their love for their sun-washed sandy beaches. To maintain a traditional way of life with limited access to motor vehicles, the community began the fight for federal protection through the creation of the Fire Island National Seashore.
Covers receipts and expenditures of appropriations and other funds.
Named a Notable Book by The New York Times Book Review in 1995, Defending Pornography examines a key question that has divided feminists for decades: is censoring pornography good or bad for women? Nadine Strossen makes a powerful case that increasing government power to censor sexual expression, beyond the limits that the First Amendment sensibly permits (for example, outlawing child pornography) would do more harm than good for women and others who have traditionally been marginalized due to sex or gender, She explains how the very anti-porn laws pushed by some feminists have led to the censorship of LGBTQ+ and feminist works, and she examines the startling connections between anti-porn feminists and right-wing fundamentalists. In an illuminating new Preface, Strossen lays out the multiple current assaults on sexual expression, which continue to come from across the ideological spectrum. She shows that freedom for such expression remains an essential prerequisite for the equality, safety, and dignity of women and sexual/gender minorities.
First published in 1993, the award-winning Cherry Grove, Fire Island tells the story of the extraordinary gay and lesbian resort community near New York City. This new paperback edition includes a new preface by the author.