Subtitle: The Making of an American Resort Community
Author: Jeffery M. Dorwart
Subject: New Jersey and the Region/History
Paper ISBN 0-8135-1784-2
Pages: 339 pp. 30 b&w illus.

Cape May County, at the southern tip of New Jersey, is one of America's most vibrant seashore resorts. Jeffery Dorwart has written a history of this community from its earliest settlement as an Atlantic maritime and farming frontier to its development today.

Beginning in the colonial period, Cape May County was a region of cultural ferment. American Indian, African American slave, and European Quaker, Baptist, and Presbyterian struggled to coexist on the wild, isolated Jersey Cape. Despite this variety of settlers, a distinct type of resident, known as the whaler yeoman, dominated affairs on the Cape May peninsula for over two hundred years.

Railroad development and the arrival during the late nineteenth century of Eastern European, Italian, and Scandinavian immigrants gradually changed Cape May County society. A multi-ethnic, multicultural community evolved that threatened whaler yeoman domination. New settlements appeared in the pine wilderness of the mainland and on the uninhabited Atlantic Ocean barrier islands. Change caused social and political tension and conflict. New development assaulted the fragile seashore environment.

This story of how Cape May County responded to dramatic change illuminates not only the historical development of a New Jersey seashore community but also enhances our understanding of the American experience with changing social and economic conditions. This volume is sponsored by the Cape May County cultural and Heritage Commission.

Jeffery M. Dorwart is a professor of history at Rutgers University, Camden.