A leading Florida historian explores one of the state’s most consequential eras. It was a time of stunning episodes of boom andbust, an era of extremes, a decade of historic changes that point to Florida’sfuture. In this book, eminent historian Gary Mormino illuminates earlytwenty-first-century Florida and its connections to some of the mostsignificant events in contemporary American history. Following Mormino’s milestone work Land ofSunshine, State of Dreams, which details the dynamic history ofFlorida from 1950 to 2000, Dreams in the New Century explores the state’s tumultuous next chapter, a period that included the Bushv. Gore election, 9/11, the housing bubble and Great Recession, and theelection of Barack Obama. During these years the Elián González story engrossedthe country, Tim Tebow rose to football fame, and Donald Trump became a Floridacelebrity. From hurricanes to Ponzi schemes, red tides, climate change, the “Stand-Your-Ground” gun law, demographic diversity, and more, Florida offerednonstop news fodder that reflected its extraordinary internal trends and itsimportance in the nation. As Mormino shows, Florida is a place ofdeep conflicts—North and South, liberal and conservative, newcomer and local,growth and conservation—with histories that can be traced back centuries. In2000‒2010, Mormino argues, these tensions collided to produce a “Big Bang” thatwill continue to resonate in years to come. Mormino takes stock of thiscrucible of change and explains the social, cultural, and political intricaciesof a state the world struggles to understand. Dreams in the NewCentury unravels Florida’s complicated recent history in a gripping,informative, and fascinating narrative.
