Staff Picks
Swamp Stories: Florida History
- Sara M.
- Monday, February 18, 2019
Collection
From Ponce de Leon to Walt Disney, Florida's history has always been a little bit different from its neighbors. Check out some books to learn a little more about what makes the Sunshine State unique.
This list is part of the #BroaderBookshelf2019 reading challenge. Find more lists here.
Best. State. Ever.
A Florida Man Defends His Homeland
Published in 2016
Sure, there was the 2000 election and flying insects the size of LeBron James. But Barry is going to show you why Florida is a great state. And whatever else you think about Florida-- you can never say it's boring.
Wiregrass Country
A Florida Pioneer Story
Published in 2012
It's 1835 in the rugged frontier of the Florida Territory-known as "Wiregrass Country" for the wild grass found there. Treff Ballowe and his adopted family, the Dovers, are struggling to keep Three Springs Ranch thriving under threat of rustlers and renegade Indians. Ace and Amaly Dover moved to Florida in 1816 and managed to withstand the subtropical weather, insects, and wild animals to accumulate a large herd of beef cattle. Now the family is being further tested as another Seminole War is brewing, and outlaws are on the rise. On his way home from a cattle sale in Mobile, Treff narrowly escapes being killed by bandits; saves the life of Hank O'Mara, a rancher shot miles from his home; and is wounded after helping fight a band of Indians attacking homesteaders. Treff recognizes their leader as He-with-One-Eye-of-an-Eagle, the Indian who orphaned Treff and his brother, Ten, fifteen years earlier. Will Treff finally get his revenge on his parents' murderer? Why is Zeke Mongol, of the Brown Owl Ranch, so secretive? And who will win the heart of the Dovers' high-spirited daughter, Marvelous? Since officers of the law are few and far between in the new Florida Territory, it's up to the Dovers to protect themselves and their property. The action never stops in this saga of one family's struggle to meet the challenges and claim the promise of this new land.
The Swamp
The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise
Published in 2016
The Everglades was America's last frontier, a wild country long after the West was won. In this book, Michael Grunwald chronicles how a series of visionaries tried to drain and "reclaim" it, and how Mother Nature refused to bend to their will; in the most harrowing tale, a 1928 hurricane drowned 2,500 people in the Everglades. But the Army Corps of Engineers finally tamed the beast with levees and canals, converting half the Everglades into sprawling suburbs and sugar plantations. And though the southern Everglades was preserved as a national park, it soon deteriorated into an ecological mess. The River of Grass stopped flowing, and 90 percent of its wading birds vanished. Now America wants its swamp back. Grunwald shows how a new breed of visionaries transformed Everglades politics, producing the $8 billion rescue plan. That plan is already the blueprint for a new worldwide era of ecosystem restoration. And The Swamp is a cautionary tale for that era. Through gripping narrative and dogged reporting, Grunwald shows how the Everglades is still threatened by the same hubris, greed, and well-intentioned folly that led to its decline.
Race & Change in Hollywood, Florida
Published in 2000
Since its incorporation in 1915, Broward County has been a community in transition. Once a rustic frontier of palmettos and mangroves, then a seasonal tourist community, it is now a bustling area of over 1.5 million people. This metropolitan reputation was cemented in a Money magazine article in the late 1990s that touted the town of Hollywood, once just a bedroom community sandwiched between Fort Lauderdale and Miami, as having an ethnic make-up that mirrors what America will look like by the year 2022. That distinction led to an extensive, locally supported oral history project in Hollywood. The memories of 42 residents, recorded for the county's historical archives, span 75 years of racial and ethnic change in Hollywood. These candid accounts come from whites and African Americans; Hispanics of Cuban, Dominican, and Puerto Rican descent; Bahamians and Jamaicans; Haitians; Chinese; and South Americans. Telling stories of the past-- of segregated beaches, buses, and rest rooms; of facing the culture of a new country; and of causes over the years that have brought different ethnic groups together--these individuals provide valuable, often poignant insight into race relations in America. And they do so in their own words.
The Orchid Thief
[a True Story of Beauty and Obsession]
Published in 2014
Chronicles the 1994 crime story of John Laroche, a plant dealer who teamed up with three Seminole Indians to steal rare orchids from a southern Florida swamp with the intention of having the orchids cloned to sell to collectors; examines the ramifications of the case, which concerned a wide variety of groups, including environmentalists, Native Americans, and orchid enthusiasts.
A Land Remembered
Published in 2015
In this best-selling novel, Patrick Smith tells the story of three generations of the MacIveys, a Florida family who battle the hardships of the frontier to rise from a dirt-poor Cracker life to the wealth and standing of real estate tycoons. The story opens in 1858, when Tobias MacIvey arrives in the Florida wilderness to start a new life with his wife and infant son, and ends two generations later in 1968 with Solomon MacIvey, who realizes that the land has been exploited far beyond human need. The sweeping story that emerges is a rich, rugged Florida history featuring a memorable cast of crusty, indomitable Crackers battling wild animals, rustlers, Confederate deserters, mosquitoes, starvation, hurricanes, and freezes to carve a kingdom out of the swamp. But their most formidable adversary turns out to be greed, including finally their own. Love and tenderness are here too: the hopes and passions of each new generation, friendships with the persecuted blacks and Indians, and respect for the land and its wildlife. Patrick Smith's novel is now available for young readers. A teacher's manual is available for using A Land Remembered to teach language arts, social studies, and science coordinated with the Sunshine State Standards of the Florida Department of Education.
Weeki Wachee, City of Mermaids
A History of One of Florida's Oldest Roadside Attractions
Published in 2007