Florida is a state of transplants. Even people who relocated here decades ago still claim their birthplace as their home. They might change their mind if they knew that the Sunshine State owns one of the richest histories in the nation. Decades before the Pilgrims, the Spanish celebrated Thanksgiving in Florida. Centuries before the first St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York, the holiday was celebrated in St. Augustine, where urban renewal was underway when Jamestown settlers arrived. Author James Clark offers a lifetime of places to explore and thousands of facts to fascinate, tracing the state’s long history from Pensacola to the Florida Keys.
James C. Clark is a senior lecturer in the History Department at the University of Central Florida. He is one of Florida’s leading historians, the author of ten books and the editor of a three-volume anthology of Florida writers. He has been honored by the Florida Historical Society, the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors and the Florida Magazine Association. He lives in Orlando, Florida.