This book presents the multidisciplinary results of an extensive underwater excavation in north Florida. This yielded the most complete results of interactions between early Paleoindians and late Pleistocene megafauna, in a rich environmental context in eastern North America. The data provides fundamental insights into "the Peopling of the Americas" and "The Extinction of the Megafauna". An excellent color photo section expresses the uniqueness of this project.

Reviews the lives and accomplishments of people who were either born in Florida and achieved greatness elsewhere, or came to Florida and achieved greatness there.

Presenting the most current research and thinking on prehistoric archaeology in the Southeast, this volume reexamines some of Florida’s most important Paleoindian sites and discusses emerging technologies and methods that are necessary knowledge for archaeologists working in the region today. Using new analytical methods, contributors explore fresh perspectives on sites including Old Vero, Guest Mammoth, Page-Ladson, and Ray Hole Spring. They discuss the role of hydrology—rivers, springs, and coastal plain drainages—in the history of Florida’s earliest inhabitants. They address both the research challenges and the unique preservation capacity of the state’s many underwater sites, suggesting solutions for analyzing corroded lithic artifacts and submerged midden deposits. Looking towards future research, archaeologists discuss strategies for finding additional pre-Clovis and Clovis-era sites offshore on the southeastern continental shelf. The search is important, these essays show, because Florida’s prehistoric sites hold critical data for the debate over the nature and timing of the first human colonization of the Western Hemisphere.

“Curiosity and intelligence run deep in Ronald W. Kenyon’s writing. He’s a tireless world traveler with a real knack for looking at wherever he is and finding reasons to be fascinated by it.” Frank Cerabino, columnist, The Palm Beach Post The cast of characters in these seventeen stories of fascinating Floridians includes the living and the dead, the famous and the infamous—murderers, imposters, royal pretenders, a supermarket cashier, a housekeeper, a homeless former crack addict rescued by an anonymous benefactor, the woman who was elected chief of the Seminoles, a Jordanian Cordon Bleu chef, a chess champion who founded a city and the first two Jewish senators. Even John Lennon makes an appearance. A road trip across the state results in the shocking revelation that, in the 1920’s, Seminole children were prohibited from attending either “white” or “colored” schools, but ends with an unexpected surprise: the Seminole Tribe of Florida, grown wealthy by the profits of its casinos, now owns the worldwide Hard Rock Café chain Some of the essays involved extensive research, often sparked by an apparently trivial observation; thus the story of the phony count and the fake countess begins when I noticed a sign with an inappropriate ampersand and leaps around the world to France, the former Belgian Congo, Yemen, the Emirate of Sharjah and Tangier. The people in this book are Floridians, all, and some were even born in the Sunshine State. Yet most are transplants like me, native-born Americans migrating from elsewhere in the United States or immigrants fleeing Hitler’s Germany, Castro’s Cuba and the poverty of Guatemala. Each of them—each of us—possesses Real Stories to tell, and in this book the reader will discover some of them.

Florida Book Awards, Silver Medal for Florida Nonfiction Florida Historical Society Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Award "Compelling stories of people whose ideas about themselves changed as they struggled to understand new people and circumstances. . . . A rich tale of cross-cultural divisions and mutual disappointments."--Journal of Southern History "Through an examination of Spanish, French, and English written accounts, Murphree contends that despite their differences, Florida’s European colonists all developed common attitudes towards the region’s native populations."--Florida Historical Quarterly "Race and racism simply did not arrive to the shores of Florida. Instead, this volume demonstrates how racism emerged out of the frustrations and failures of the Spaniards, Frenchmen, and Britons to control the land and people of Florida."--Andrew K. Frank, author of Creeks and Southerners: Biculturalism on the Early American Frontier Constructing Floridians explores the ways racial identities developed in peninsular Florida and beyond during the 300 years before the founding of the United States. Daniel Murphree shows how the peoples of Spain, France, and Great Britain and half a dozen Florida tribes--the Guale, Calusa, Timucuans, Apalachees, Creeks, and Seminoles--created understandings of one another and themselves. Murphree argues that the Europeans, frustrated by their inability to "tame" the peninsula, blamed the natives for their problems and that barriers between the Europeans and the Indians hardened over time. His focus on race and identity opens up a rare perspective on the story of Florida's past.

A fun- and fact-filled investigation into why the Sunshine State is the weirdest but also the most influential state in the Union.

A Land Remembered has become Florida's favorite novel. Now this Student Edition in two volumes makes this rich, rugged story of the American pioneer spirit more accessible to young readers. Patrick Smith tells of three generations of the MacIveys, a Florida family battling the hardships of the frontier. The story opens in 1858, when Tobias and Emma MacIvey arrive in the Florida wilderness with their son, Zech, to start a new life, and ends in 1968 with Solomon MacIvey, who realizes that his wealth has not been worth the cost to the land. Between is a sweeping story rich in Florida history with a cast of memorable characters who battle wild animals, rustlers, Confederate deserters, mosquitoes, starvation, hurricanes, and freezes to carve a kingdom out of the Florida swamp. In this volume, meet young Zech MacIvey, who learns to ride like the wind through the Florida scrub on Ishmael, his marshtackie horse, his dogs, Nip and Tuck, at this side. His parents, Tobias and Emma, scratch a living from the land, gathering wild cows from the swamp and herding them across the state to market. Zech learns the ways of the land from the Seminoles, with whom his life becomes entwined as he grows into manhood. Next in series > > See all of the books in this series

Once considered just an insect-ridden swampland, Florida is now a top destination for tourism, business, agriculture and innovation thanks to these 25 individuals. Florida is in many ways both the oldest and newest of the megastates. The ideas and actions of a colorful cast of characters - from beloved cultural icons to political heroes and even a socialist dictator - transformed the peninsula. A Barbados native rescued Florida's orange industry after the catastrophic 1835 freeze. Known as the "Grande Dame of the Everglades," Marjory Stoneman Douglas worked tirelessly to save the state's vast, incomparable wetlands from annihilation in the early twentieth century. In the mid-1800s, a Florida doctor developed a precursor to modern air conditioning. Join former U.S. senator George LeMieux and journalist Laura Mize as they profile and rank, according to impact, the 25 trailblazers who have changed the Sunshine State forever.

An exploration of many "fringe" lifestyles in Florida, including bikers, ufologists, spiritualists, swingers, "pony girls," strip club owners, nudists, and others.