Florida

Florida history trumps the simple narrative of a beach read. St. Augustine’s story doesn’t begin with sixteenth-century Spaniards and Miami history didn’t begin unfolding with Henry Flagler and his railroad. Natives began arriving in the Sunshine State during the last ice age, millennia before snowbirds began migrating down to Mount Dora. From the legend of Hogzilla to the first slice of key lime pie, from Pensacola down to Key West, our catalogue of Florida history books teems with fascinating tales and innovative characters who saw swamp and envisioned paradise. [View all Florida books]
2 products
Cover image for Black Beauties, isbn: 9781467144827
Black Beauties
Paperback
$23.99
Cover image for Race and Change in Hollywood, Florida, isbn: 9780738505695
Race and Change in Hollywood, Florida
Paperback
$24.99

Black Beauties

9781467144827

$23.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%

In 1984, Vanessa Williams broke the race barrier to become Miss America, but she was not the first Black woman to wear a pageant crown.


Black beauty pageants created a distinctive and celebrated cultural tradition during some of the most dismal times in the country's racial history. With the rise of the civil rights and Black Pride movements, pageantry also represented a component of social activism. Professor Kimberly Pellum explores this glamourous and profound history with contributions by dozens of former contestants who share their personal experiences.

Cover image for Black Beauties, isbn: 9781467144827

Race and Change in Hollywood, Florida

9780738505695

$24.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
Since its incorporation in 1915, Broward County has been a community in transition. Once a rustic frontier of palmettos and mangroves, then a seasonal tourist community, it is now a bustling area of over 1.5 million people. This metropolitan reputation was cemented in a Money magazine article in the late 1990s that touted the town of Hollywood, once just a bedroom community sandwiched between Fort Lauderdale and Miami, as having an ethnic make-up that mirrors what America will look like by the year 2022. That distinction led to an extensive, locally supported oral history project in Hollywood. The memories of 42 residents, recorded for the county's historical archives, span 75 years of racial and ethnic change in Hollywood. These candid accounts come from whites and African Americans; Hispanics of Cuban, Dominican, and Puerto Rican descent; Bahamians and Jamaicans; Haitians; Chinese; and South Americans. Telling stories of the past— of segregated beaches, buses, and rest rooms; of facing the culture of a new country; and of causes over the years that have brought different ethnic groups together—these individuals provide valuable, often poignant insight into race relations in America. And they do so in their own words.
Cover image for Race and Change in Hollywood, Florida, isbn: 9780738505695