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Realityland by
"Realityland: True-Life Adventures at Walt Disney World" takes the first-ever in-depth, unauthorized look at the creation and operation of the world's most popular vacation destination. Step backstage and witness: Walt's original plans for Disney World-and how his dreams completely changed in the hands of his successors. His undercover agents who secretly bought 44 square miles of swamps. The chaotic construction and frantic first years of the Magic Kingdom. The underground caverns that wind beneath the theme park. Disney's unconventional, initially disastrous foray into operating its own hotels. The behind-the-scenes machinations that led to EPCOT Center.
From Sun Cities to the Villages by
Active adult communities have proliferated, including Harold Schwartz's "The Villages" in central Florida, today the nation's single largest retirement community. For nearly sixty years, the success of these and similar communities have changed the image of retirees from frail, impoverished old people to energetic, well-off adults enjoying a resort-like lifestyle. While some experts predicted these communities would fail or undermine the obligations between generations, they are now firmly embedded as one possible extension of the American dream.
The Rogue Republic by
a small band of American residents drafting a constitution and establishing a new government. By the time President Madison sent troops to occupy the territory, assert U.S. authority under the Louisiana Purchase, and restore order, West Florida's settlers had already announced their independence, becoming our country's shortest-lived rogue republic. Meticulously researched and populated with the colorful characters that make American history a joy, this is the story of a young country testing its power on the global stage and a lost chapter in how the frontier spirit came to define American character. The first treatment of this little-known historical moment, The Rogue Republic shows how hardscrabble frontiersmen and gentleman farmers planted the seeds of civil war, marked the dawn of Manifest Destiny, and laid the groundwork for the American empire.
Cypress Gardens, America's Tropical Wonderland by
Where America's wildest dreams came true "At Cypress Gardens--the original Florida theme park--movie stars, water-ski champs, and southern sweethearts created magic. More than anyone, even Walt Disney, Dick Pope Sr. invented Florida as America's dream vacationland. This journey back to the attraction in its heyday brims with wonderful images, true tales, and the author's great love for and understanding of the real Florida. Before the monstrous Mouse infested the orange groves, luring tourists to its predigested 'fun,' Cypress Gardens was Florida's premier attraction, a crazy salad of sunshine, water, flowers, palm trees, and pretty girls in bathing suits performing dare-devilish stunts. To the average person weathering a New England winter, Dick Pope's Cypress Gardens must have looked even more exotic than a trip to Alice's Wonderland. The images coming out of his promotional powerhouse appeared in magazines, newspapers, newsreels, and movies. These Technicolor glories depicted everything from bathing beauties aquaplaning through walls of fire to southern belles relaxing beneath huge tropical plants, from Don Ameche proposing to Betty Grable under moss-hung cypress trees to Esther Williams performing a water ballet in the famous Florida-shaped pool. It was all happening in sleepy Winter Haven, where one real estate maverick turned tourism tycoon was out to sell "100,000 [visitors] 25 cents worth of Florida." Lu Vickers also discusses the park's decline following the construction of Walt Disney World, changes in management, the evolving interests and vacationing habits of the nation, as well as its outlook for the future as a part of LEGOLAND Florida.
The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise by
The Everglades was once reviled as a liquid wasteland, and Americans dreamed of draining it. Now it is revered as a national treasure, and Americans have launched the largest environmental project in history to try to save it. "The Swamp" is the stunning story of the destruction and possible resurrection of the Everglades, the saga of man's abuse of nature in southern Florida and his unprecedented efforts to make amends. Michael Grunwald, a prize-winning national reporter for "The Washington Post," takes readers on a riveting journey from the Ice Ages to the present, illuminating the natural, social and political history of one of America's most beguiling but least understood patches of land. The Everglades was America's last frontier, a wild country long after the West was won. 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 this book is a cautionary tale for that era. Through gripping narrative and dogged reporting, Grunwaldshows how the Everglades is still threatened by the same hubris, greed and well-intentioned folly that led to its decline.
Florida's Space Coast: The Impact of NASA in the Sunshine State by
"This outstanding book provides readers of Florida history our first insight into the impact that high technology has had on the state. Brevard County is a veritable laboratory for understanding what happens when space science and engineering put down roots in a wilderness setting. Florida's Space Coast tells the compelling story of America's half century in space exploration, from the successful launch of the first two-stage rocket in 1950 through the latest space shuttle missions of 2000. Told from the unique viewpoint of the people who built the Spaceport, this book shows how the space program transformed the east central Florida coast from a traditional citrus production and tourist area to one of the most influential high-tech centers in the nation. Cape Canaveral was chosen as a missile launch site because of its many geographical advantages. However, in the early years of the space program, the area was far from an ideal place for NASA employees to raise their families. NASA brought in thousands of space-related workers, who, besides sending machines and men into space, had to meet the challenge of moving their families from urban environs to a rural southern county. This book engagingly recounts the parallel stories of the establishment of America's space program and its impact on the development of Brevard County.
Nov. 22, 1964
Walt Disney decides to build his new park near Orlando, Florida. He uses front men to snap up 27,500 acres cheaply, without raising suspicion about his grand plan.
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Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off Pad 39A, with Astronauts John Young and Bob Crippen. The first space shuttle mission. After 54 1/2 hours of testing the shuttle's systems, they landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
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Stormsong - This sculptural celebration of our Florida wildlife is a culmination of a fifteen-year effort by the artist to create a public tribute to our unique natural heritage. In the year 2000, work on Stormsong began, resulting in the 50-foot-long series of cast stainless-steel and aluminum figures representing official state wildlife symbols. The soaring crescent of dolphins is the result of a public/private partnership. Sculptor: Hugh Bradford Nicholson.
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Sunshine States: Wild Times and Extraordinary Lives in the Land of Gators, Guns and Grapefruit by
In seven pieces that describe their stories, dreams, and nightmares, journalist Patrick Carr writes about the fascinating Floridians whose lives are the reality of the Sunshine State. They include alligator hunters near Lakeland, water warriors in Tampa, narcotics cops and political refugees in Miami, a Seminole chief in the Glades, and a cracker sage at Fisheating Creek. Like all transplants, Carr says, he loves Florida for what it isn't--cold and old--and for what it is--hot and wild. His compassionate, spirited, and often funny action journalism captures the character of a frontier paradise. Patrick Carr's journalism has appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Village Voice, and many other magazines and newspapers. His books include Gun People (with George Gardner), Backstage Passes (with Angela Bowie), Cash (with Johnny Cash), and The Illustrated History of Country Music . Born in England, he has lived in Tampa, Florida, since the early 1980s.
Sunshine Paradise by
How tourism shaped the Sunshine State "An enlightening journey through Florida's diverse and evolving tourism history, illustrating the changing face of tourism over the years, and how Floridians have coped with these changes. For nearly two hundred years, Floridians have eagerly exploited tourism as the key to economic prosperity. As a result, the state has constantly reshaped and remodeled itself as different types of tourist heavens, and many aspects of its history have become inseparable from the fantastic images created by the tourism industry. From spa retreats to nature preserves, from riverboat rides to roller coasters, and from railroads to theme parks, the state’s dependence on tourism has greatly shaped its identity. Sunshine Paradiseis the first book to focus exclusively on how--and why--tourism came to define Florida. Offering a concise look at the subject from the 1820s to the present, Tracy Revels demonstrates tourism’s relevance to all other major aspects of Florida history, including the Civil War, the land boom, and civil rights. In this enjoyable and well-written history, Revels shows how Florida’s tourism industry has remained adaptive and expansive, ready to sell the next version of paradise to northerners hungry for sunshine.
Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando by
"Walt Disney World and Orlando have become the world's most popular tourist destination. Growth not only gives, it also takes away. Fueled by Disney's arrival, the tremendous growth in Orlando has created public expenditure needs, but not always matching tax resources. It has generated traffic congestion, public facility deficits, affordable housing shortages, and a low-wage economy. This situation is complicated further because of the special enticement granted to the Disney Co. for coming to Florida: their own private government - a sort of "Vatican with Mouse ears"
Citrus by
Nearly 100 million tons of citrus are produced globally every year, but where did these fruits first come from? How did they find their way into the Western world? And how did they become both a culinary and cultural phenomenon? Pierre Laszlo here traces the spectacular rise and spread of citrus across the globe: from Southeast Asia in 4000 BC through North Africa and the Roman Empire to early modern Spain and Portugal, whose explorers introduced the fruits to the Americas during the 1500s. A short but brilliant account of 6,000 years of citrus fruits that should be devoured with fervor. Did you know there are a billion citrus trees under cultivation, or that grapefruit juice may potentiate the effects of Viagra? Citrus mines over two millennia of history to explore the spread of these fruits out of Asia, their commercialization in the United States, and enduring symbolism the world over.
