Research Guides: 1920's Land Boom in Florida: Books

Books

Bubble in the Sun by Christopher Knowlton
Call Number: HD266.F6 K67 2020 Florida

ISBN: 9781982128371

Publication Date: 2020-01-14

The 1920s in Florida was a time of incredible excess, immense wealth, and precipitous collapse. The decade there produced the largest human migration in American history, far exceeding the settlement of the West, as millions flocked to the grand hotels and the new cities that rose rapidly from the teeming wetlands. The boom spawned a new subdivision civilization--and the most egregious large-scale assault on the environment in the name of "progress." Nowhere was the glitz and froth of the Roaring Twenties more excessive than in Florida. Here was Vegas before there was a Vegas: gambling was condoned and so was drinking, since prohibition was not enforced. Tycoons, crooks, and celebrities arrived en masse to promote or exploit this new and dazzling American frontier in the sunshine.
Florida in the Great Depression by Nick Wynne; Joe Knetsch
Call Number: F316 .W96 2012 Florida

ISBN: 9781609498061

Publication Date: 2012-11-20

The financial boom of the 1920s gave Florida citizens a look at prosperity and promise. By 1926, natural disasters, financial misdeeds and failures to realize those promises created a sense of impending doom and forced entrepreneurs into bankruptcy. With the hurricane of 1928, the boom was over, and coupled with bank failures and numerous farming epidemics, Florida plunged into a depression--two years before the stock market crash of 1929. Journey with noted Florida historians Nick Wynne and Joseph Knetsch as they detail the hardships of the times and the defiance of a state determined to rise above them.
The Florida Land Boom: Speculation, Money, and the Banks by William J. Frazer; John J. Guthrie
Call Number: HC107.F6 F73 1995 Florida

ISBN: 9781567200133

Publication Date: 1995-11-30

The Florida land boom was an outgrowth of the industrialization of America, the onset of World War I, and the special natural environment of the state. A place for forts and ports since the days of the Spanish Empire, the presence of military aviation in Florida served to bring attention to the state. Florida came to attract tourists, winter residents, as well as promoters, developers, and speculators. Rich in documentation and illustrated with photographs, this work is an effort to give serious theoretical and factual treatment to one of the great speculation booms in history.
Panic in Paradise by Raymond B. Vickers
Call Number: HG2611.F6 V53 1994 Florida

ISBN: 9780817307233

Publication Date: 1994-08-30

Panic in Paradise is a comprehensive study of bank loan failures during the Florida land boom of the mid-1920s, during the years preceding the stock market crash of 1929. Florida and Georgia experienced a banking panic in 1926 when, in a ten-day period in July, after uncontrollable depositor runs, 117 banks closed in the two states. Uninsured depositors lost millions, and several suicides followed the financial havoc. This volume makes use of banking records that were legally sealed for almost 70 years and provides a shocking story of professional corruption and conspiracy.
The Sunshine Economy: An Economic History of Florida since the Civil War by William B. Stronge
Call Number: HC107 .F6 S75 2008 Florida

ISBN: 0813032016

Publication Date: 2008-05-04

Before the Civil War, Florida's population hovered around 200,000. Over the next century, it increased dramatically, rising to just under three million by 1950. During the next fifty years, however, it exploded, increasing more than 500 percent to almost sixteen million. By the end of the twentieth century, the state had one of the nation's largest economies. The Sunshine Economy traces the development of the industries that spurred this major growth. It describes how Florida progressed from being one of the least populated states in the country, with an economy based on forestry products and open-range cattle farming, to the fourth most populated state, with an economy based on sunshine, tourism, retirement, citrus, and vegetables.

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