If travelers along Route 20 in east-central New York notice the village of Sharon Springs at all, it is only when they are caught in the speed trap located halfway down the hill leading to the town's single traffic light. But if one turns north at the light and drives into the heart of town, one is met with sights more interesting than might have been anticipated. During winter, the village resembles a sleeping relic of nineteenth-century America. In the summer, the streets are alive with people, many wearing the black coats and earlocks that are the marks of the Hasidic Jew-the flavor is not that or rural America, but a prewar Hungary or Romania.The Short Season of Sharon Springsis a portrait in photographs and words of the rise, decline, and survival of this strange little village and health spa in rural New York. Stuart M. Blumin has written a history of Sharon Springs that begins with the founding of the spa in 1825, describes the golden age of upper-class resort life in the nineteenth century, analyzes the passing of that age and the emergence of a new era of local contraction and decay, and chronicles the curious manner in which the spa has managed to survive into our own day. He tells, also, the parallel story of the rural village that grew up around the hotels and baths, and that waxed and waned with the spa, even though it drew most of its sustenance not from tourism but from agriculture. Hansi Durlach has photographed the village, the villagers, and the summer visitors in ways that convey her own vision of contemporary Sharon Springs, and to her striking images are added a number of photographs that depict Sharon Springs in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The text and photographs together tell the singular tale of a little community that is at once a part of and apart from rural America. Hansi Durlach is a professional photographer. Stuart M. Blumin is Associate Professor of History at Cornell University. Deborah Adelman Blumin is a sociologist who has worked for the State of New York.

Located in the northwest corner of Schoharie County, Sharon was established in 1797 after Palatine German and Dutch families had settled in the area, replacing the Iroquois in the 18th century. Set in rolling hills with magnificent vistas over the Mohawk Valley, the area's mineral springs drew native people and Europeans to bathe in the health-promoting waters. The spa era of grand hotels and wealthy guests gave way to a slow but steady decline around 1900; however, from the early 1990s, the town has enjoyed a renaissance with the arrival of creative artists and entrepreneurs, including The Fabulous Beekman Boys, whose reality television series showcased Sharon, linking past to present. The couple lives in the mansion of prominent early resident William Beekman, the first judge of Schoharie County and the owner of the first mercantile.

“[A] scrupulously researched and beautifully crafted account of how nineteenth-century Americans went in search of health, rest, and diversion.” —Lena Lencek and Gideon Bosker, coauthors of The Beach. The History of Paradise on Earth In First Resorts: Pursuing Pleasure at Saratoga Springs, Newport, and Coney Island, Jon Sterngass follows three of the best-known northeastern American resorts across a century of change. Saratoga Springs, Newport, and Coney Island began, he finds, as similar pleasure destinations, each of them featuring “grand” hotels where visitors swarmed public spaces such as verandas, dining rooms, and parlors. As the century progressed, however, Saratoga remained much the same, while Newport turned to private (and lavish) “cottages” and Coney Island shifted its focus to amusements for the masses. Fifty-nine illustrations enliven Sterngass’s unique study of the commodification of pleasure that occurred as capitalist values flourished, travel grew more accessible, and leisure time became democratized. These three resorts, he argues, served as forerunners of twentieth-century pleasure cities such as Aspen, Las Vegas, and Orlando. “An engaging, creative book replete with evocative illustrations and witty quotes . . . a pleasant read.” —Thomas A. Chambers, New York Academy of History “Sterngass’s discussions about privacy, community, commercialization, consumption, leisure, and the desire to be conspicuous are important and new. With its well-chosen illustrations, this is a handsome book as well as an important one.” —Kathryn Allamong Jacob, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University “Having mined every conceivable source about his three sites, Sterngass has presented a wealth of interesting material not only about the resort experience but also about the residents, politicians, and entrepreneurs who built them.” —Journal of American History

Tourism—one of the world's largest industries—has long been appreciated for its economic benefits, but in this volume tourism receives a unique systematic scrutiny as a medium for cultural exchange. Modern developments in technology and industry, together with masterful advertising, have created temporarily leisured people with the desire and the means to travel. They often in turn effect profound cultural change in the places they visit, and the contributors to this work all attend to the impact these "guests" have on their "hosts." In contrast to the dramatic economic transformations, the social repercussions of tourism are subtle and often recognized only by the indigenous peoples themselves and by the anthropologists who have studied them before and after the introduction of tourism. The case studies in Hosts and Guests examine the five types of tourism—historical, cultural, ethnic, environmental, and recreational—and their impact on diverse societies over a broad geographical range

This book traces the emergence of the recongnizable 'middle class' from the 1760-1900.

This book, first published in 1982, offers an examination of the special nature of biochemistry collections. It focuses on the production, control, and use of the literature – diverse in nature, and analysed here by specialist contributors.