Browse by Subject: History

Please note that while you may order forthcoming books at any time, they will not be available for shipment until shortly before publication date

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Sunshine State Mafia: A History of Florida’s Mobsters, Hit Men, and Wise Guys

A wild ride through a century of Mafia lore, this book offers inside accounts and little known stories of organized crime across Florida, from the Keys to Pensacola and Jacksonville.

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Tracing Florida Journeys: Explorers, Travelers, and Landscapes Then and Now

In this book, Leslie Poole delves into the stories of explorers and travelers who came to Florida during the past five centuries, looking at their words and the paths they took from the perspective of today.

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Florida's Space Coast: The Impact of NASA on the Sunshine State

This book tells the story of how NASA transformed Florida's East Coast from an economy based on agriculture and tourism to one of the nation's most influential centers of technology.

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Florida's Peace River Frontier

In this book, Canter Brown, Jr. records the economic, social, political, and racial history of the Peace River Valley in southwest Florida in an account of violence, passion, struggle, sacrifice, and determination.

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Justice Pursued: The Exoneration of Nathan Myers and Clifford Williams

An in-depth look at a wrongful conviction and its landmark reversal, this book is the story of Nathan Myers and Clifford Williams, who were released in 2019 after almost 43 years in prison in the first exoneration brought about through a Conviction Integrity Unit in Florida.

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Mickey and the Teamsters: A Fight for Fair Unions at Disney

A surprising tale of corruption alongside activism, this book reveals the little-known story of Teamsters Local 385, the union that represents the performers who play the iconic characters of Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and Cinderella at Walt Disney World.

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The Making of Florida’s Universities: Public Higher Education at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

In this book, Carl Van Ness describes the formative years of higher education in Florida, comparing the trajectory to that of other states and putting it in context within the broader history and culture of the South.

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From Death Row to Freedom: The Struggle for Racial Justice in the Pitts-Lee Case

This book is an insider’s account of the case of Freddie Lee Pitts and Wilbert Lee, two Black men who were wrongfully charged and convicted of murder and sentenced to death during the civil rights era of the 1960s.

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Castles in the Sand: The Life and Times of Carl Graham Fisher

This is the definitive biography of a famous developer and fascinating entrepreneur. Born in Indiana, Carl Fisher helped build the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and headed promotion for the Indy 500. But these feats were only prologue to his grandest adventure, as primary developer and promoter of Miami Beach.