Tag Archives: Florida History
Florida as a Presidential swing state – a history
Listen to the latest edition of The Florida History Podcast discussing Florida’s role as a Presidential swing state in both General Elections and primaries since 1876. The Florida History Podcast is available on Anchor, Spotify , Google Podcasts, Breaker, <a href="http://Pocketcasts, and Radio Public.
Identity politics IS modern global politics – A brief historical overview of how & why we got here
At this website we’ve railed time and again against what we see as the shallow game of identity politics. It’s a game that allows those advocating it to avoid meaningful discussion of issues related to policy and governance. It’s a game that pits race against race, ethnicity against ethnicity and religion against religion. However, it […]
The Florida History Podcast Episode 2: Region v Region; North v South
In episode two we take a brief look at the historic divisions between south Florida and north Florida. The cracker identity v the “Cincinnati effect.” We discuss the cultural identity of both regions and the inevitable clash both politically and socially that would come in time. The conflict between different regions of our diverse state […]
Why don’t Floridians know much about the state’s history?
Of course while writing that headline I had Sam Cooke’s music going through my head. But it’s a serious question… For whatever reason, the rich history of Florida, the first part of the continental United States to be colonized by Europeans, as well as a place with a rich pre-Columbian history is often ignored by […]
Throwback Thursday: Apollo 8 from Cape Canaveral to the world
50 years ago today the mission of Apollo 8 ended., It ranks as one of the most important space missions in history and launched from Cape Canaveral On December 21, 1968. Apollo 8 was the first ever space mission to leave the earth’s orbit and to circle the moon. In the process they became the […]
Holiday book recommendations: Kevin Phillips on the Bush family
Kevin Phillips, who was dubbed in 1995 by one of my Political Science Professors at the University of Florida as “the smartest Republican around,” is widely viewed as the chief architect of the 1968 Nixon “Southern Strategy” which for 20 years remade the Presidential Electoral map. Beginning in that fall semester in 1995, I began […]
Famous Floridian Friday Claude Pepper holiday book recommendations
For the holidays we recommend both Red Pepper and Gorgeous George: Claude Pepper’s Epic Defeat in the 1950 Democratic Primary (Florida Government and Politics) and Claude Pepper and Ed Ball: Politics, Purpose, and Power (Florida History and Culture) While most modern historians and political activists would point to November 7, 2000 as the most significant election in […]
Throwback Thursday: The Civil War in Florida- union blockade
Florida was the least populated state in the Confederacy during the Civil War. But with by far the longest coastline in the nation, the Union had to take seriously the ability of the smugglers to use Florida to get weapons and other raw materials to the Confederate Government. At the outset of the war, the […]
Famous Floridian Friday: Governor LeRoy Collins after leaving office
In 2016, I penned the afterward to Robert Buccellato’s excellent Florida History timepiece, Finding Dan McCarty focusing on the Governorship of Leroy Collins, who took the unfulfilled McCarty mantle and promise, and made Florida a modern state. I have in the past focused much my analysis on Collins’ views toward improving Florida’s business climate and had long […]
Throwback Thursday: Queen Anne’s War and the British siege of Pensacola
HISTORICAL NOTE: I REFER TO PRE-1707 ACTIVITIES AS “ENGLISH” AND THOSE FROM 1707 ONWARD AS “BRITISH” DUE TO THE ACTS OF UNION BETWEEN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH CROWNS THAT WERE ENACTED IN 1707. This week in 1707 the second British siege of Pensacola was lifted. It was culmination of hostilities between the English and the […]
The Florida Squeeze 