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Some
Kind of Paradise
A
Chronicle of Man and the Land in Florida
by Mark Derr
Order
this Book now
For 500 years, visitors to Florida have discovered magic. In Some
Kind of Paradise, an eloquent social and environmental
history of the state, Mark Derr describes how this exotic land is
fast becoming a victim of its own allure.
He begins by examining the period between Reconstruction and the
Great Depression, when wealthy capitalists led by Henry Flagler
and Henry Plant opened the peninsula to a flood of development by
building railroads and luxury hotels.
Turning to the distant past, he describes the geologic origins of
the state and early fossil finds. From archaeological data, he
stitches together a portrait of the first human inhabitants and
their distinct cultures, then follows the thread of time to the
"discovery" of Florida in 1513 by Juan Ponce de León,
the fall of the indigenous people to European diseases and
weapons, and the pattern of conquest and racial violence that
continued into the 19th century as white Americans waged a
campaign against the Seminole Indians.
Derr keeps his gaze on the land and its people--wreckers and
spongers in Key West, cowmen on the "palmetto prairie,"
speculators and builders from Miami Beach to Seaside, Cuban cigar
makers who rolled tobacco while listening to readings from
Shakespeare and Marx, and migrant fruit pickers, convict
laborers, and the idle rich--the range of dreamers and schemers
who have struggled to remake this abundant, fragile wonderland.
Written with both tenderness and alarm, Derr’s book presents
their competing views of Florida: a paradise to be protected and
nurtured or a frontier to be exploited and conquered.
Mark Derr moved to Florida with his family at
age six; his interest in the state’s history and ecology
dates back to the late 1960s, when he watched the landscape
around Winter Park change with the construction of Walt Disney
World. He is the author of two other critically acclaimed books, The
Frontiersman and Dog’s Best Friend, and his
articles have appeared in Atlantic Monthly, Natural History,
Audubon, and other publications. He lives in Miami Beach
with his wife, Gina Maranto.
1998. 448
pp. 6 X 9.
6
maps, 53 b&w photos, notes, bibliography, index.
ISBN 0-8130-1629-0
Paper,$17.95
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"The history of Florida is the
story of North America in miniature. By telling it with such
eloquence and learning in ‘Some Kind of Paradise,’ Mr.
Derr has revealed the dark side of the historian Frederick
Jackson Turner’s famous hypothesis: our national character
was indeed shaped by the frontier. . . . [Derr] writes with a
journalist’s eye for telling details and an
antiquarian’s fondness for digression and quirky facts. . .
. The state’s tortuous journey from one extreme to the other
is [his] subject, and he tackles it with brilliance and
bravado."--New York Times Book Review
"This highly readable history of Florida concentrates on the transformation of a swamp wilderness into the fourth largest state in the nation. Derr is deft at describing the natural riches of the state but he is equally skilled at characterizing the developers, cowboys, spongers, railroad magnates and other colorful characters who helped turn Florida into what it is today." --
Tampa Times-Tribune
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