Finding Florida : the true history of the Sunshine State
T. D. Allman (Author)
Over the centuries, Florida has been many things: an unconquered realm protected by geography, a wilderness that ruined Spanish conquistadors, "god's waiting room," and a place to start over. Depopulated after the extermination of its original native population, today it's home to nineteen million. The site of vicious racial violence, including massacres, slavery, and the roll-back of Reconstruction, Florida is now one of our most diverse states, a dynamic multicultural place with an essential role in 21st-century America. In Finding Florida, journalist T.D. Allman reclaims the remarkable history of Florida from the state's mythologizers, apologists, and boosters. Allman traces the discovery, exploration, and settlement of Florida, its transformation from a swamp to "paradise." Palm Beach, Key West, Miami, Tampa, and Orlando boomed, fortunes were won and lost, land was stolen and flipped, and millions arrived. The product of a decade of research and writing, Finding Florida is a highly original, stylish, and masterful work, the first modern comprehensive history of this fascinating place
History
xvii, 556 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 23 cm
9780802122308, 0802122302
873617194
Prologue: Natures and names
pt. 1. Invasive species. Believe it or not ; The Johnny Appleseed of pigs ; Chert ; The fort, not the fountain
pt. 2. Coveting Florida. The West Florida Lone Star Butterfly Effect ; The unseen foe ; Americanization at Negro Fort ; Florida's fake history
pt. 3. Osceola's head. Governor DuVal's conspiracy ; Defined by massacre ; Jesup's capitulation ; Alternative Floridians
pt. 4. Whistling Dixie. Metropolis of the Branded Hand ; Disambiguation ; Empowering the betweenity ; Triumph of violence ; King Ignorance
pt. 5. Project future. Pioneers in Paradise ; Swanee ; The total triumph of Walter P. Fraser ; Location, location, location
pt. 6. Florida millennium. Theme park universe ; Cities of the future ; A fateful convergence
Epilogue: No escape from America