The Tropic of Cracker

The Tropic of Cracker PDF Author: Al Burt
Publisher: Florida History and Culture (P
ISBN: 9780813033853
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
For anyone who loves the old Florida and still has hope for the new "Should be required reading for everyone who calls Florida home."--Miami Herald "There is a richness and sadness in this book. . . . A museum of Florida's choicest people, places and monuments."--Palm Beach Post "Ever wonder what's the best way to eat a rattlesnake? Puzzled over the origin of the term 'Florida Cracker'? Have an interest in alligator wrestling or catfish? Al Burt has some answers for you."--Forum "Burt's writing shows a Florida that is vanishing before our eyes. [He] reveals the strange, quirky, charming face of the Sunshine State by writing about catfishermen on Lake Okeechobee, by relating the stories of Florida cowboys who drove free-range cattle across the state and by describing the hardships of a couple who abandoned south Florida for an organic farm in the Panhandle."--Weekly Planet "Burt grabs the spirit of the Florida that once was, tantalizes us, makes us nostalgic and weaves a bit of oral history as we travel with him. . . . It's as warm as a front-porch gathering on a July evening or a grandma's hug, as fresh as a fall breeze through the pinewoods or across an undeveloped coastal dune."--Gainesville Sun "Drawing upon his long career as a roving Florida journalist, Burt uses a series of vivid biographical profiles to explore the full range of 'crackerdom,' from the good old boys and 'pork chopper' politicians of the Panhandle to the native Conchs of Key West. Perhaps most impressive, he brings these endangered subcultures to life without resorting to sensationalist caricature or lapsing into nostalgic revery. Cracker Florida, which surely has suffered more than its share of condescension and misunderstanding, has finally found its laureate."--from the Foreword

The Tropic of Cracker

The Tropic of Cracker PDF Author: Al Burt
Publisher: Florida History and Culture (P
ISBN: 9780813033853
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
For anyone who loves the old Florida and still has hope for the new "Should be required reading for everyone who calls Florida home."--Miami Herald "There is a richness and sadness in this book. . . . A museum of Florida's choicest people, places and monuments."--Palm Beach Post "Ever wonder what's the best way to eat a rattlesnake? Puzzled over the origin of the term 'Florida Cracker'? Have an interest in alligator wrestling or catfish? Al Burt has some answers for you."--Forum "Burt's writing shows a Florida that is vanishing before our eyes. [He] reveals the strange, quirky, charming face of the Sunshine State by writing about catfishermen on Lake Okeechobee, by relating the stories of Florida cowboys who drove free-range cattle across the state and by describing the hardships of a couple who abandoned south Florida for an organic farm in the Panhandle."--Weekly Planet "Burt grabs the spirit of the Florida that once was, tantalizes us, makes us nostalgic and weaves a bit of oral history as we travel with him. . . . It's as warm as a front-porch gathering on a July evening or a grandma's hug, as fresh as a fall breeze through the pinewoods or across an undeveloped coastal dune."--Gainesville Sun "Drawing upon his long career as a roving Florida journalist, Burt uses a series of vivid biographical profiles to explore the full range of 'crackerdom,' from the good old boys and 'pork chopper' politicians of the Panhandle to the native Conchs of Key West. Perhaps most impressive, he brings these endangered subcultures to life without resorting to sensationalist caricature or lapsing into nostalgic revery. Cracker Florida, which surely has suffered more than its share of condescension and misunderstanding, has finally found its laureate."--from the Foreword

Complete Guide to Florida Wildflowers

Complete Guide to Florida Wildflowers PDF Author: Roger L. Hammer
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493030949
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
This guide features stunning color photographs of more than 600 common wildflowers of Florida. Detailed descriptions and full-color photos aid the reader in identifying plants in the field.

Florida Lore

Florida Lore PDF Author: Caren Schnur Neile
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1439663521
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
This fascinating collection of myths, legends and folktales celebrates the diversity of characters and cultures across the Sunshine State. Florida boasts mysterious tales that stretch back more than twelve thousand years. In Florida Lore, storyteller Caren Schnur Neile shares a treasure trove of colorful, curious tales that capture her home state’s history, mystery, and unique personality. Delve into the lives of the proud Wakulla Pocahontas and the Ghost of Bellamy Bridge. Meet local lawbreakers like John Ashley, as well as transplants like Ma Barker and Al Capone. Stalk stumpy gators or Hogzilla as they prowl Florida's swamps and suburbs. Discover the quintessential Cracker cowboy and the Barefoot Mailman, plus the origin of names like Boca Raton and Orlando.

Walking in the Land of Many Gods

Walking in the Land of Many Gods PDF Author: A. James Wohlpart
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 0820345245
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
"How are we placed on Earth? What is our relationship to the world around us, and how does our thinking affect the way we relate to the world? We are entrapped, says A. James Wohlpart, by what Martin Heidegger calls "enframing," a worldview that considers all objects as mere resources for our use. Walking in the Land of Many Gods envisions a new way of thinking about the world, one grounded in a moral imagination reconnected to Earth. Insightful readings of three contemporary classics of nature writing--Janisse Ray's Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, Terry Tempest Williams's Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, and Linda Hogan's Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World--are at the heart of Wohlpart's endeavor. Powerful and affecting works like these reveal a pathway to a deeper remembering, one that reconnects us with the primal forces of creation and acknowledges the sacredness of the world. We have forgotten that the world around us is rich and fertile and generative, says Wohlpart. His exploration of these literary works, based on deep anthropology and Native American philosophy, opens a pathway into a new way of thinking called sacred reason. Founded on interdependence and interrelationship, and on care and compassion, sacred reason reminds us that divinity exists around us at all times. We are invited to walk, once again, in a land filled with many gods."--

A Most Disorderly Court

A Most Disorderly Court PDF Author: Martin A. Dyckman
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 0813059259
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
In the 1970s, justices on the Florida Supreme Court were popularly elected. But a number of scandals threatened to topple the court until public outrage led to profound reforms and fundamental changes in the way justices were seated. One justice abruptly retired after being filmed on a high-roller junket to Las Vegas. Two others tried to fix cases in lower courts on behalf of campaign supporters. A fourth destroyed evidence by shredding his copy of a document into "seventeen equal" strips of paper that he then flushed down a toilet. As the journalist who wrote most of the stories that exposed these events, Martin Dyckman played a key role in revealing the corruption, favoritism, and cronyism then rampant in the court. A Most Disorderly Court recounts this dark period in Florida politics, when stunning revelations regularly came to light. He also traces the reform efforts that ultimately led to a constitutional amendment providing for the appointment of all Florida's appellate judges, and emphasizes the absolute importance of confidential sources for journalists.

Florida Heritage

Florida Heritage PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Archaeology
Languages : en
Pages : 138

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Book Description


A Journey into Florida Railroad History

A Journey into Florida Railroad History PDF Author: Gregg M. Turner
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 0813042925
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
It is safe to say that without railroads, Florida wouldn't be what it is today. Railroads connected the state's important cities and towns, conquered the peninsula's vast and seemingly impenetrable interior, ushered in untold numbers of settlers and tourists, and conveyed to market--faster than any previous means of transportation--the myriad products of Florida's mines, forests, factories, farms, and groves. Gregg Turner traces the long, slow development of Florida railroads, from the first tentative lines in the 1830s, through the boom of the 1880s, to the maturity of the railroad system in the 1920s. At the end of that decade nearly 6,000 miles of labyrinthine track covered the state. Turner also examines the decline of the industry, as the automobile rose to prominence in American culture and lines were abandoned or sold for hiking trails and green spaces. Meticulously researched and richly illustrated--including many never-before-published images--A Journey into Florida Railroad History is a comprehensive, authoritative history of the subject. Written by one of the nation's foremost authorities on Florida railroads, it explores all the key players and companies, and every significant period of development. This engaging and lively story will be savored and enjoyed by generations to come.

Gladesmen

Gladesmen PDF Author: Glen Simmons
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 0813047056
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 339

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Book Description
Few people today can claim a living memory of Florida's frontier Everglades. Glen Simmons, who has hunted alligators, camped on hammock-covered islands, and poled his skiff through the mangrove swamps of the glades since the 1920s, is one who can. Together with Laura Ogden, he tells the story of backcountry life in the southern Everglades from his youth until the establishment of the Everglades National Park in 1947. During the economic bust of the late ‘20s, when many natives turned to the land to survive, Simmons began accompanying older local men into Everglades backcountry, the inhospitable prairie of soft muck and mosquitoes, of outlaws and moonshiners, that rings the southern part of the state. As Simmons recalls life in this community with humor and nostalgia, he also documents the forgotten lifestyles of south Florida gladesmen. By necessity, they understood the natural features of the Everglades ecosystem. They observed the seasonal fluctuations of wildlife, fire, and water levels. Their knowledge of the mostly unmapped labyrinth of grassy water enabled them to serve as guides for visiting naturalists and scientists. Simmons reconstructs this world, providing not only fascinating stories of individual personalities, places, and events, but an account that is accurate, both scientifically and historically, of one of the least known and longest surviving portions of the American frontier.

The Tropic Magazine

The Tropic Magazine PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Florida
Languages : en
Pages : 576

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Book Description


The Ghost of Jim Crow

The Ghost of Jim Crow PDF Author: Anders Walker
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199720460
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
In "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Martin Luther King, Jr. asserted that "the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice." To date, our understanding of the Civil Rights era has been largely defined by high-profile public events such as the crisis at Little Rock high school, bus boycotts, and sit-ins-incidents that were met with massive resistance and brutality. The resistance of Southern moderates to racial integration was much less public and highly insidious, with far-reaching effects. The Ghost of Jim Crow draws long-overdue attention to the moderate tactics that stalled the progress of racial equality in the South. Anders Walker explores how three moderate Southern governors formulated masked resistance in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education. J. P. Coleman in Mississippi, Luther Hodges in North Carolina, and LeRoy Collins in Florida each developed workable, lasting strategies to neutralize black political activists and control white extremists. Believing it possible to reinterpret Brown on their own terms, these governors drew on creative legal solutions that allowed them to perpetuate segregation without overtly defying the federal government. Hodges, Collins, and Coleman instituted seemingly neutral criteria--academic, economic, and moral--in place of racial classifications, thereby laying the foundations for a new way of rationalizing racial inequality. Rather than focus on legal repression, they endorsed cultural pluralism and uplift, claiming that black culture was unique and should be preserved, free from white interference. Meanwhile, they invalidated common law marriages and cut state benefits to unwed mothers, then judged black families for having low moral standards. They expanded the jurisdiction of state police and established agencies like the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission to control unrest. They hired black informants, bribed black leaders, and dramatically expanded the reach of the state into private life. Through these tactics, they hoped to avoid violent Civil Rights protests that would draw negative attention to their states and confirm national opinions of the South as backward. By crafting positive images of their states as tranquil and free of racial unrest, they hoped to attract investment and expand southern economic development. In reward for their work, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson appointed them to positions in the federal government, defying notions that Republicans were the only party to absorb southern segregationists and stall civil rights. An eye-opening approach to law and politics in the Civil Rights era, The Ghost of Jim Crow looks beyond extremism to highlight some of the subversive tactics that prolonged racial inequality.