Browse by Subject: History

Once considered one of the greatest Floridians of his generation, Millard Fillmore Caldwell is known today for his inability to adjust to the racial progress of the modern world. Leading Florida historian Gary Mormino tackles the difficult question of how to remember yesterday’s heroes who are now known to have had serious flaws.

In this comprehensive history of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), one of the oldest and most important women’s organizations in United States history, Simon Wendt shows how the DAR’s efforts to keep alive the memory of the nation’s past were entangled with and strengthened the nation’s racial and gender boundaries.

Journalist, activist, and adventurer, Jane Wood Reno was one of the most groundbreaking and colorful American women of the twentieth century. Told by her grandson, George Hurchalla, this is an intimate biography of a free thinker who shattered barriers during the explosive early years of Miami.

This book is a behind-the-scenes look at the bizarre crime of astronaut Lisa Nowak, who drove 900 miles to intercept and confront her romantic rival in an airport parking lot—allegedly using diapers on the trip so she wouldn’t have to stop. This is a riveting journey inside the high-pressure world of one of America’s most elite agencies and the life of one beleaguered astronaut.

In this innovative global history of the American Civil War, Aaron Sheehan-Dean compares and contrasts the American experience with other civil and national conflicts that happened at nearly the same time—the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Polish Insurrection of 1863, and China’s Taiping Rebellion.

This book is a sweeping story of black internationalism across the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Ocean worlds, told through the life and work of twentieth-century environmental activist Pauulu Kamarakafego. Quito Swan shows how Kamarakafego helped connect liberation efforts of the African diaspora throughout the Global South.

A unique scrapbook diary of one child's experience with Polio in the 1940s. This daily journal, written by a mother on the frontlines on the fight against the Polio epidemic, describes her daughter’s journey in her daughter’s voice, through the pain and loneliness of her life-changing illness.

This book tells the story of Pete O’Neal, one of the most influential members of the Black Panther Party, who now lives in exile in Tanzania—unable to return to the United States but refusing to renounce his past.

Opening a window onto the little-known Japanese-American heritage of Florida, Yamato Colony is the true tale of a daring immigrant venture that left behind an important legacy. Ryusuke Kawai tells how a Japanese farming settlement came to be in south Florida, far from other Japanese communities in the United States.

Contesting the assumption that early American economists were committed to Adam Smith’s ideas of free trade and small government, this book provides a comprehensive history of the nation’s economic thought from 1790 to 1860, tracing the development of a uniquely American understanding of capitalism.