Finding Florida: The True History of the Sunshine State, by T. D. Allman
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Finding Florida: The True History of the Sunshine State, by T. D. Allman
PDF Ebook Online Finding Florida: The True History of the Sunshine State, by T. D. Allman
Longlisted for the National Book Award and a Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year
Over the centuries, Florida has been many things: an unconquered realm protected by geography, a wilderness that ruined Spanish conquistadors, "god's waiting room," and a place to start over. Depopulated after the extermination of its original native population, today it's home to nineteen million. The site of vicious racial violence, including massacres, slavery, and the roll-back of Reconstruction, Florida is now one of our most diverse states, a dynamic multicultural place with an essential role in 21st-century America.
In Finding Florida, journalist T. D. Allman reclaims the remarkable history of Florida from the state's mythologizers, apologists, and boosters. Allman traces the discovery, exploration, and settlement of Florida, its transformation from a swamp to "paradise." Palm Beach, Key West, Miami, Tampa, and Orlando boomed, fortunes were won and lost, land was stolen and flipped, and millions arrived. The product of a decade of research and writing, Finding Florida is a highly original, stylish, and masterful work, the first modern comprehensive history of this fascinating place.
Finding Florida: The True History of the Sunshine State, by T. D. Allman- Amazon Sales Rank: #3516391 in Books
- Published on: 2015-09-08
- Formats: Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 2
- Dimensions: 6.75" h x .68" w x 5.25" l, .18 pounds
- Running time: 21 Hours
- Binding: MP3 CD
From Booklist *Starred Review* Allman’s engaging, eye-opening, and heavily researched history of Florida spans half a milllennium, from the myth of Ponce de León’s Fountain of Youth to the 2012 shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, and it is a fulsome cavalcade of would-be conquistadors, epically corrupt and racist politicans, and oligarch-wannabes. Allman argues that these individuals’ ideas about Florida were wildly wrong. Ponce was looking for gold in a state devoid of metals; even Presidents Jefferson, Monroe, and Madison schemed to control Florida only to learn that the place had no resources. Florida only consumes resources. “People were constantly ruining Florida; Florida ruined them right back,” he writes. The Seminole Wars, the Civil War, various massacres, Reconstruction, a second Reconstruction, Disney World, the Marielitos, voter suppression—it’s all here, and even Carl Hiaasen couldn’t make it up. This is history for the intelligent generalist, and Allman writes with style, passion, and real outrage at Florida’s odious political history. Readers will be struck by his conclusion that much of America—as Florida has long done—is abandoning verifiable facts for beliefs that are often utter nonsense. But, hey, it was sunny and 80 degrees in Florida today. --Thomas Gaughan
From Bookforum Finding Florida is an immense and important work, an overdue survey and indictment of the Sunshine State — and the way Americans increasingly live now. —Maud Newton
Review “A take-no-prisoners account . . . extremely timely and relevant.”—New York Times Book Review“Gripping.”—Salon.com“A magisterial rip at the state’s invaders, conquerors and rulers.”—Orlando Magazine“A rich and lively history of Florida, minus the Disney gloss . . . [Allman] shatters five centuries of mythmaking to tell the real story. . . . A splendid rendering of the messy human story of our fourth-most populous state.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"Allman’s engaging, eye-opening, and heavily researched history of Florida spans half a millennium, from the myth of Ponce de León’s Fountain of Youth to the 2012 shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, and it is a fulsome cavalcade of would-be conquistadors, epically corrupt and racist politicians, and oligarch wannabes."—Booklist"An immense and important work."—Bookforum"I loved Allman's extraordinary book. . . . Almost every county in Florida bears the name of a butcher, a slavedriver, a madman, a scoundrel or a thief, in a state where for half a millennium the governing mandate seems to be Defeat the Truth, Triumph over Reality. T.D. Allman's counter-narrative to all the pretty lies is a scouring hurricane of research, investigation, and soul-cleansing wrath, and I doubt there has ever been a better, or more important, book written about the Sunshine State, the birthplace of imperial hubris, American-style."—Bob Shacochis, author of The Immaculate Invasion and The Woman Who Lost Her Soul"Equal parts social analysis, historical review, and jeremiad, Finding Florida is a passionate, often scathing, and remarkably comprehensive encounter with a confounding, contradictory, and ever-elusive place. If your idea of hell is being chained to a galley oar between a politician and a Chamber of Commerce exec, then you are likely to love this book."—Les Standiford, author of Last Train to Paradise“Manuscripts repeatedly find their way into print that ignore the reality of Florida’s past and, in so doing, skew our understanding of what Florida has been, what it is now, what it’s likely to become, and what that means for everyone. T. D. Allman’s book turns all that on its head. It directly challenges the existing historiography with highly intelligent insight and crafting of narrative in a way that permits the reader to immerse himself in a world far from the expected one. Finding Florida is provocative to the point of daring. Thomas Jefferson claimed a little revolution was needed about every twenty years. Florida and its historiography is long overdue for one.”—Canter Brown, Jr., Professor of History, Fort Valley State University“An extraordinary tome . . . Finding Florida offers a history lesson that is long overdue."—Birmingham Times“For the general reader, Finding Florida is a catalyst for hearty discussions and more reading.”—Authentic Florida“Finding Florida is fascinating, comprehensive, and accessible to the non-specialist reader. While Allman covers an enormous amount of material—taking Florida from uninhabited swampland to the sidewalk culture of South Beach—he does so in such engaging ways that the reader is never overwhelmed. Indeed, each chapter is in itself a satisfying and illuminating narrative, stock full of vivid characters. Somehow he has managed to pull together a compelling read without sacrificing historical substance, a feat to which many professional historians aspire. His wry voice conveys a point of view that gently pushes readers to understand Florida as an American synecdoche.”—Glenda Gilmore, Peter V. and C. Vann Woodward Professor of History, Yale University“Allman provides connections between events, trends, individuals, cultures, geography and geology that all worked to shape Florida’s past and our future. But the real reason to pick up this book is that it’s a ripping good read; with its fast pace, wry humor, polished prose, and compelling story, I just could not put it down.”—Thomas Van Lent, senior scientist at the Everglades Foundation“[From] a raconteur of rare qualities . . . [one] of the fiercest and most prescient nonfiction books written about the Sunshine State in the past 40 years.”—Palm Beach Arts Paper“Finding Florida is a must-read for any Florida resident who is interested in the state’s history.”—EU Jacksonville Magazine
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57 of 64 people found the following review helpful. Finding Florida: Fact, subjective journalism or diatribe? By John Williamson I'll sum up my feelings on this book in three words for those who scan reviews looking for some assessment: depressing, demoralizing and disheartening.It's quite clear that native Floridian and author T.D. Allman did extensive research in his new book Finding Florida, but for this reader, a former Florida resident for many years, it's apparent that there should have been some fact checking done before publication. Mr. Allman is well-educated author and an accomplished journalist, with years of experience under his belt, and should be quite experienced with the checking of facts.The book starts off well, and his Prologue kicks the theme off well, with somewhat snarky mentions of Florida's unique geography, the search for gold by Spanish explorers, sinkholes, alligators and palmetto bugs (referred to as "Floridaese for giant flying cockroaches"), which made this former resident smile, as many of us had poked jibes at these for many years. Then there was this passage:"Florida is the Play-Doh State. Take the goo; mold it to your dream. Then watch the dream ooze back into goo. People are constantly ruining Florida; Florida is constantly ruining them back."Will admit that I laughed at this and a few more descriptions... until I reached page viii, where part of a sentence jumped out at me: "Florida lacks alluvial soil..." This statement jolted me, remembering back to junior high in Florida when I received a verbal smack down from a teacher for missing the word in a quiz. Florida has no alluvial soil? It's mentioned in Hollee Temple's 2006 book, The Florida Quiz Book: How Much Do You Know About Florida?, in reference to Florida's alluvial sinkholes on page 116, and again on page 125, regarding the classifications of the state's rivers. Alluvial is the first one mentioned. I won't get into the alluvial soil that exists in Paynes Prairie, just south of Gainesville, which is well remembered from my own college days there.This may seem picky, but it's an example, and it had me putting a multitude of Post-It notes throughout the +500 pages of this book, then going onto the Internet to see if others had stumbled into errors in this book. I was not alone; there were a number of them, with the most prominent being published by the Tampa Bay Times on April 3, 2013, entitled "Finding flaws in 'Finding Florida' by T.D. Allman," in which the staff writers noted that they 'kept finding forehead-slapping errors' among other things. A copy of the author's response to the paper was also published, as there are always two or more sides to every story.For this reader, it became an exercise in trying to avoid the minefields of the errors while trying to enjoy the book, but by the end my copy was bristling with Post-It notes from a few pads. What had started off as an enjoyable anticipated read had declined into a wearisome exercise of reading an author's often highly-subjective comments about the history of the so-called Sunshine State. There were parts where this reader could laugh, as some seemed to be spot on. Other parts seemed to be pure drivel, but there's no point in dwelling on them here. I won't pick apart the errors, as others have done that more eruditely.The back cover calls this "the first modern history of this important place," though that might be considered to be quite subjective. Author Allman does cover the history of Florida from the time of Juan Ponce de León to Trayvon Martin, and some of what we read can be illuminating. But there has always been a myth enveloping the state, ever since the elusive search for gold and the Fountain of Youth, so its story has been written and re-written many times over. Why should this version be any different?If you want straightforward journalism about the state, Florida native Carl Hiaasen's 1999 classic Kick Ass might be a better source, which highlights some of his best columns from the Miami Herald. That's just a subjective opinion.As an authoritative and definitive history, it wasn't that for this reader. As an interesting and decently written work, it's probably a good 3-star read, about the same as his earlier Rogue State: America at War with the World. If you read it as historical fiction, you might find it to be better. Finding Florida was a book that I hoped to enjoy. Instead, I found it to be depressing, demoralizing and disheartening, as noted in the beginning. The reader will have to determine if it's fact, subjective journalism or diatribe.4/24/2013
25 of 28 people found the following review helpful. A bleak look at Florida By wogan There are many facts in this book that are interesting, such as Florida is the only state with no metals and then when you think you know it all, T.D. Allman proceeds to dispel absolutely every historical fact that you have been taught about the state and its history. It is a fact that much of what is written in history textbooks is a glorification of conquering the land and the native peoples and definitely the saying that history is written by the winners is a fact. The problem with this history is that it is written in a seemingly angry, sarcastic manner and in in a way that is completely critical of everything about the state and the federal government. The only person that comes out without criticism is Claude Pepper, who definitely had his faults too.Absolutely everything that Allman writes concerns that fact that history has been fabricated by everyone, except him.The atmosphere in Florida is to blame the victim, whites can shoot, maim kill other races with no punishment even today. Almost every chapter brings up and compares what is happening to the admittedly little known and horrid massacre at Fort Negro. It is as if this is the only place in the world that carnages and injustice has prevailed. He constantly reminds readers that anyone who has brought fortunes to Florida has been wiped out, with the exception of Walt Disney who lied and finagled his way into skirting tax and environmental laws which every rich person in Florida gets to do. Even the poor do not complain as their access to beaches is constantly blocked so that bridges can rise to let the rich yachts sail by.Allman seems to take pleasure in describing the blood and gore, massacres and killings. He tells how the confederate army`s fighting was not a trail of glory but of blood, pus and vomit. Contrary to most histories he sets out to prove that Dr. Mudd was actually involved in the conspiracy against Lincoln, because he set Booth's leg and lied about it.There is no real mention of WWII in the state and the influx of servicemen and airbases, but yet this is supposed to be a complete history. He does spend a short amount of time on the space race and Cape Canaveral which he dismisses as an expensive amusement park, pretending that it is close to Orlando and of course the space race gave us no useful scientific knowledge in his view. He does go into the deceitful practices of the government and NASA which caused the Challenger explosion. And of course two of the hijackers on 9/11 were able to learn how to fly but not land, because the Florida government exists to make money, not protect the public. The diatribe continues with Katrina (hurricanes don't abandon people, our government just guns them down when they are trying to reach safety) and also invading Iraq because of mass weapons of destruction.One wonders is there anything good in Florida. He certainly doesn't think so. It is, from what you read in this book a culture and state that does not teach anything in their educational system, the politicians and the government all lie; there is injustice for everyone unless you are rich or living in the protected enclaves of the well to do. The climate is horrible, it is a lie that it is a sunshine state, it has frost and cold and more rain than almost any other place. You either live in a trailer or a McMansion. The state does not support programs to help its people and the Miami area is an example of; if a non-human species was there, a biologist would call it a Florida infestation.This is an extreme and angry book that has as its purpose - to tell everyone that Florida rips everybody off. The pages seethe with anger against one and all and anyone connected with Florida.
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful. Tabloid history at it's worst By R. C Sheehy I had to struggle to read through this entire book hoping against hope that at some point it would turn into something decent. Instead it is nothing but tabloid stories where nothing good nor even decent came from Florida. The state was run by no one but racist demagogues who accomplished nothing of substance. They are all liars and thieves and anyone who ever set foot in Florida did so because they were either a fool or a con-artist. It is odd that nothing of any value came from Florida. No mention of the accomplishments by natives and no mention of anything good.This book is just rubbish and I suggest you not waste any time reading it.
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