Finding Florida: The True History of the Sunshine State

Finding Florida: The True History of the Sunshine State
ISBN-10
0802193730
ISBN-13
9780802193735
Series
Finding Florida
Category
History
Pages
528
Language
English
Published
2013-03-05
Publisher
Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
Author
T. D. Allman

Description

Longlisted for the National Book Award and a Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year 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.

Other editions

Similar books