Florida Quincentennial Book – serie

From the four corners of the world, parents gather their children, pack their suitcases, and make the journey to Disney World in central Florida. Honeymooners choose the destination over countless others. Its symbols whether the three overlapping circles that create a mouse’s head or Cinderella’s Castle with a shooting star over the turrets are recognised around the globe. It has had nearly one billion visitors since opening in 1971.In this fascinating analysis, Cher Krause Knight peels back the actual and contextual layers of Walt Disney’s inspiration and vision for the resort to explore the reasons why Disney World has emerged as such a prominent sociocultural force. Every detail, from the scale and design of the buildings to the sidewalk infrastructure to what items could and could not be sold in the shops, was carefully calculated to shape the experience of each visitor. Expertly weaving themes of pilgrimage, paradise, fantasy, and urbanism, Knight delves into the unexpected nuances and contradictions of this elaborately conceived play land of the imagination.

Marjorie Harris Carr (1915-1997) is best known for leading the fight against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Cross Florida Barge Canal. In this first full-length biography, Peggy Macdonald corrects many long-held misapprehensions about the self-described “housewife from Micanopy,” who along with her husband, Archie Carr, a pioneering conservation biologist, struggled to balance career and family.Born in Boston, Carr grew up in southwest Florida, exploring the region's marshes and waterways and observing first-hand the impact of unchecked development on the state’s flora and fauna. Macdonald’s work depicts a determined woman and Phi Beta Kappa scholar who earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in zoology only to see her career thwarted by institutionalized gender discrimination. Carr launched her conservation career in the 1950s while raising five children and eventually became one of the century’s leading environmental activists.A series of ecological catastrophes in the 1960s placed Florida in the vanguard of the burgeoning environmental revolution as the nation’s developing eco-consciousness ushered in a wave of revolutionary legislation. With Carr serving as one of the most effective leaders of a powerful contingent of citizen activists who opposed dredging a canal across the state, “Free the Ocklawaha” became a rallying cry for environmentalists throughout the country.Marjorie Harris Carr is an intimate look at this remarkable woman who dedicated her life to conserving Florida’s wildlife and wild places. It is also a revelation of how the grassroots battle to save a small but vitally important river in central Florida transformed the modern environmental movement.

Before William Jennings Bryan successfully prosecuted John Scopes in the infamous Scopes ""Monkey Trial,” he was a prominent antievolution agitator in Florida.In Going Ape, Brandon Haught tells the riveting story of how the war over teaching evolution began and unfolded in Florida, one of the nation’s bell¬wether states. This conflict still simmers just below the surface, waiting for the right moment to engulf the state.The saga opens with the first shouts of religious persecution and child endangerment in 1923 Tallahassee and continues today with forced delays and extra public hearings in state-level textbook adoptions. These cease¬less battles feature some of the most colourful culture warriors imaginable: a real estate tycoon throwing his fortune into campaigns in Miami; lawmakers attempting to insert the mandatory teaching of creationism into bills; and pastors and school board members squabbling in front of the national media that descends into their small town. The majority of participants, however, have been, and still are, average people, and Haught expertly portrays these passionate citizens and the sense of moral duty that drives each of them.Given a social climate where the teaching of evolution continues to sharply divide neighbours and communities, Going Ape is a must-read for anyone con¬cerned with the future of public education.

Whether you’re looking for a sun-splashed jaunt amid mangroves and strangler figs, an exhilarating trek across palmetto prairies, or a detour down forgotten roads into years past, Day Hiking Southwest Florida has the perfect outdoor adventure. Johnny Molloy, outdoorsman extraordinaire, shares forty of his favourite “front country” hikes through city, county, and state parks and their surrounding wild lands. Destinations include Babcock Ranch Preserve, home to several endangered species, including the Florida black bear and burrowing owl; Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, a subtropical island oasis for migratory birds; and Wild Turkey Strand Preserve, site of a World War II airfield training base. With a variety of trail lengths and difficulty levels, this guidebook offers an array of possibilities for all outdoor explorers, from the tourist in search of a reprieve from theme parks to the long-time Florida hiker seeking new scenery.Best of all, the quick and concise format provides everything necessary to get started. For each hike Molloy provides a detailed map, driving directions with GPS coordinates, photographs, and notes about trail junctions, stream crossings, trailside features, and more. Day Hiking Southwest Florida opens up the natural world for you to explore in this vibrant slice of the Sunshine State.

Over the course of centuries, recent immigrants from numerous countries in contemporary Africa have influenced the Sunshine State’s history and culture. Through a critical evaluation of the influences and effects of the numerous African and African-influenced cultures that have been a part of the state’s history, this collection of essays and art explores how Florida both shapes and is shaped by the multiple African diasporas that move through it. Africa in Florida challenges the way American history and southern studies have characterized African contributions to the development of the United States by showing how Africans, both free and enslaved, asserted themselves as explorers, farmers, slave owners, artists, and more.

Representing half of the state’s population, the U.S. Middle District Court is one of the busiest federal courts in Florida. It is recognized most often as the battleground for the Terri Schiavo “right to die” case, but it has been at the center of major decisions for more than fifty years. The famous and the infamous have stood before the judges of the Middle District courts, including young civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall, mobster Santo Trafficante, drug lord Carlos Lehder, baseball star Denny McLain, movie star Wesley Snipes, criminal defense attorney F. Lee Bailey, and Constance Baker Motley, the first African American woman to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.The verdicts have made headlines, but little is known about the inner workings of the court in which they were delivered. In Fifty Years of Justice, James Denham presents the fascinating history of the U.S. Middle District Court of Florida from its founding in 1962 to the present. Readers will discover the intricacies of rulings, the criminal defendants and civil litigants, and the dedicated officials - the unsung heroes - who keep the justice system running day to day. From desegregation to discrimination, espionage to the environment, trafficking to terrorism, and a host of cases in between, litigation in these courtrooms has shaped and shaken both state andnation.

In 2013, National Geographic Traveler chose St. Augustine as one of “20 must-see places and best trips in the world.” But while tourists take in the fort and stroll the cobblestone streets, few visitors are aware of the remarkable history of this oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement in the continental UnitedStates.Walking St. Augustine fuses illustrated history and intimate handbook. The author, Elsbeth “Buff” Gordon, one of the city’s most highly regarded historians, is also a resident and offers insider tips for exciting adventures.Gordon divides the colonial village into sections, all easily walked in a single day.She guides visitors through Plaza de la Constitucion, the oldest public park in America, and down the same avenues walked by the first Spanish settlers. She vividly retells landmark events, highlights areas of architectural or historic interest, delves into the genealogy of the multicultural families that have made St. Augustine home, and offers human stories and heritage recipes passed down through the centuries.With this vibrantly rendered, easy-to-use, and color-coded guide, visitors canwalk the seldom-visited south end of the city, which includes the earliest residential area with streets dating back to 1572, and stop in at the Flagler College complex, its more recent history illuminated by its architectural perfection. Gordon suggests visiting the Colonial Quarter Living History Museum, and for those looking to venturebeyond walking distance, the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park, Anastasia Island, and Fort Mose, the nation’s first legally free black settlement.Walking St. Augustine opens the doors to a spellbinding city, allowing visitors to discover five centuries of gripping history.

Florida often seems not quite southern - yet it suffered more lynching than any of its Deep South neighbors when examined in proportion to the number of African American residents.Investigating this dark era of the state’s history and focusing on a string of brutal lynchings that took place during the 1940s, Tameka Hobbs explores the reasons why lynchings continued in Florida when they were starting to wane elsewhere. She contextualizes the murders within the era of World War II, contrasting the desire of the United States to broadcast the benefits of its democracy abroad while at home it struggled to provide legal protection to its African American citizens.As involvement in the global war deepened and rhetoric against Axis powers heightened, the nation’s leaders became increasingly aware of the blemish left by extralegal violence on America’s reputation. Ultimately, Hobbs argues, the international implications of these four murders, along with other antiblack violence around the nation, increased pressure not only on public officials in Florida to protect the civil rights of African Americans in the state but also on the federal government to become more active in prosecuting racial violence.

In the midst of the Great Depression, a furious storm struck the Florida Keys with devastating force. With winds estimated at over 225 miles per hour, it was the first recorded Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the United States. Striking at a time before storms were named, the catastrophic tropical cyclone became known as the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, and its aftermath was felt all the way to Washington, D.C. In the hardest hit area of the Florida Keys, three out of every five residents were killed, while hundreds of World War I veterans sent there by the federal government perished. By sifting through overlooked official records and interviewing survivors and the relatives of victims, Thomas Knowles pieces together this dramatic story, moment by horrifying moment. He explains what daily life was like on the Keys, why the veteran work force was there (and relatively unprotected), the state of weather forecasting at the time, the activities of the media covering the disaster, and the actions of government agencies in the face of severe criticism over their response to the disaster. This title provides a frightening account of the first Category 5 storm to strike the U.S.