Paradise Lost? The Environmental History of Florida

About this book

This collection of essays surveys the environmental history of the Sunshine State, from Spanish exploration to the present, and provides an organized, detailed overview of the reciprocal relationship between humans and Florida's unique peninsular ecology. It is divided into four thematic sections: explorers and naturalists; science, technology, and public policy; despoliation; and conservationists and environmentalists.

The contributors describe the evolving environmental policies and practices of the state and federal governments and the dynamic interaction between the Florida environment and many social and cultural groups including the Spanish, English, Americans, southerners, northerners, men, and women. They have applied historical methodology and also drawn on the methodologies of the fields of political science, cultural anthropology, and sociology.

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Biography

Jack E. Davis is associate professor of history at University of Florida and editor of The Wide Brim: Early Poems and Ponderings of Marjory Stone-man Douglas. Raymond Arsenault is the John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, and author of St. Petersburg and the Florida Dream, 1888-1950.