A Florida State of Mind
An Unnatural History of Our Weirdest State
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A witty history of the state that's always in the news, for everything from alligator attacks to zany crimes.
There's an old clip of Bugs Bunny sawing the entire state of Florida off the continent—and every single time a news story springs up about some shenanigans in Florida, someone on the internet posts it in response. Why are we so ready to wave goodbye to the Sunshine State? In A Florida State of Mind: An Unnatural History of Our Weirdest State, James D. Wright makes the case that there are plenty of reasons to be scandalized by the land and its sometimes-kooky, sometimes-terrifying denizens, but there's also plenty of room for hilarity.
Florida didn't just become weird; it's built that way. Uncharted swampland doesn't easily give way to sprawling suburbia. It took violent colonization, land scams to trick non-Floridians into buying undeveloped property, and the development of railroads to benefit one man's hotel empire.
Even the most natural parts of Florida are unnatural. Florida citrus? Not from here, but from China. Gators? Oh, they're from Florida all right, but that doesn't make having 1 per every 20 humans normal. Animals...in the form of roadkill? Only Florida allows you to keep anything you kill on the road (and anything you find).
Yet everyone loves Florida: tourists come in droves, and people relocate to Florida constantly (only 36% of residents were born there). Crammed with unforgettable stories and facts, Florida will show readers exactly why.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sociologist Wright's humorous and inviting guide to the brightest moments and darkest shadows of Florida's history reveals the reasons why the state is at once attractive and repellent. In brief chapters, Wright recounts Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon's discovery of the swampy land and his introduction of the orange from China, the growth of the state's tourism industry, and the development of the space industry at Cape Canaveral. Wright cannily argues that Florida is three states with three very distinct resident cultures: the "cracker culture" of north Florida; the "little Havana" of south Florida; and the culturally diverse I-4 corridor that stretches from Daytona Beach on the east coast to Tampa on the Gulf Coast, cutting through Orlando and Disney World. He briefly profiles some of Florida's residents, including serial killer Ted Bundy; real-estate con man Jesse Fish; its "best-known washed-up right-wing crooner," Pat Boone; and the man who inspired Lynyrd Skynyrd's name Leonard Skinner, the band members' phys. ed. teacher at Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville. Wright concludes that the state's heat and humidity, the perception that rules are different in Florida, and the large number of outsiders in the state contribute to the odd behavior of the state's residents. Wright is an entertaining writer, and his observations on the peculiar state are witty and insightful.
