From the opening moments of Hamptons real estate broker Allan Schneider's choking on a piece of rare steak to its final scene of Lauren Bacall's singing "God Bless America" while watching the fireworks over East Hampton's Main Beach, Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons is a spellbinding chronicle of one of the most unusual communities in the world.

Steven Gaines skillfully weaves together the stories of the Hamptons' mansions and millionaires, as told through the extraordinary lives of the people who have lived there, into a rich, gossipy tapestry. Both a contemporary portrait of the Hamptons and a historical narrative, Philistines at the Hedgerow is filled with tales of pirate treasure, a witch-hunt, and the many beguiling eccentricities of the Hamptons today.

Gaines reveals how thirty miles of once inaccessible oceanfront farmland became the playground to the superrich, the nexus of Nouvelle Society, and the obsession of the most creative and powerful personalities in the corporate, entertainment, and media worlds.

Investigating the telling relationship between property and personality, Gaines shows how land in the Hamptons has become the showcase of self-worth - be it castles, indoor lagoons, or mere acreage - the greater the ego, the more fantastic the manor.