Category Florida History
Andrew series Part V: In the wake of destruction south Florida rebuilds and transforms
Editors Note: This is Part V of a series on Hurricane Andrew Parts I, II, III and IV of the series can be found here. When comprehensive histories of southeast Florida are written or made into PBS documentaries like those of Chicago, New York and other great American metropolis’, Andrew will be one of the […]
A brief guide to (possibly?) racist place names in Florida
With the recent discussions as to renaming places, tearing down statues, etc I decided to put together a list of place I know off hand in Florida that are named for people that might offend a lot of our readers. This is not by any means a comprehensive list and I personally side with letting […]
Andrew series Part IV: President Bush, Governor Chiles, FEMA and the botched storm response
Part I Part II Part III This is part four of our month-long series on Hurricane Andrew President George H.W. Bush had won Florida by 22 points in 1988, his best performance in the southeast United States. Having just been renominated for a second term the previous week, Bush was looking forward to hitting the […]
Flashback Friday (Wednesday special): August 23/24, 1992 – Andrew races toward south Florida and makes landfall
Part I – 1966 to 1992 Part II – The week leading into Andrew Having not been hit directly by a storm of any consequence since Inez in 1966, on the evening of Sunday, August 23, 1992 a direct hit from Hurricane Andrew a rapidly intensifying storm moving quickly over the Bahamas was inevitable for […]
Flashback Friday: Hurricane Andrew heads toward south Florida
Last week we discussed the landscape of southeastern Florida from 1966 to 1992. As Tropical Storm Andrew churned in the Atlantic over a week’s journey away from Florida, eyes weren’t fixated on the tropics. In the days before Twitter, smart phones and the internet you had to wait for your weather report on the local […]
Unconquered: John Quincy Adams on the Seminole Wars
I have to admit John Quincy Adams is for me one of the most underappreciated figures in the history of this nation. Like his father he a prickly personality and fierce political independence. Like his mother he had a strong moral code one that guided him particularly after she passed and he was out of […]
The Dunning School: How Ivy League elites made racism mainstream in the 20th Century
Editors note: This is a re-running of a piece on the history of racism in Florida that was published in April, but in the wake of the events in Charlottesville and President Trump’s reaction, it’s important to understand the origins of why Confederate Monuments popped up in the 20th Century. Previously, we discussed the […]
Flashback Friday: October 1966 to August 1992 – the complacency that led to the calm before the storm (part one of a month-long series)
Editors Note: This is the first in a series of articles on TFS about Hurricane Andrew. Before, during, after… A sense of complacency. A sense of invincibility. A sense of invulnerability. A sense of arrogance. That was southeast Florida in the 1980’s. The 1980’s were heady times in southeast Florida. Miami benefited from the drug […]
Flashback Friday: Medicare and Medicaid – the votes in 1965
As large elements in the GOP try to turn back the clock on health care in this country, let’s remember 1965 and the passage of Medicare and Medicaid. Many ideological conservatives opposed the effort first begun by Harry Truman and completed by Lyndon Johnson to provide essential healthcare to seniors and the poor. President Johnson […]
Florida’s diminishing appeal among outsiders becoming apparent – A “dream state” no more
A whirlwind few weeks where many outsiders descended on Florida has come to an end. The International Champions Cup, a soccer tournament featuring eight of the biggest European clubs culminated on Saturday with El Clasico Miami. The event which was sponsored by among other entities, Visit Orlando brought fans and journalists from across the world […]
The Florida Squeeze 