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For Sale ―American Paradise: How Our Nation Was Sold an Impossible Dream in Florida
Winner of a 2016 IPPY Award Silver Medal for Best Non-Fiction, Southeast Region.
The story of how Florida became entwined with Americans' twentieth-century hopes, dreams, and expectations is also a tale of mass delusion, real estate collapses, and catastrophic hurricanes. For Sale--American Paradise hones in on the experiences of American icon William Jennings Bryan, journalist Edwin Menninger, and others who shaped the image of Florida that we know today and who sold that image as America's paradise. The cast also includes the Marx Brothers, Thomas Edison, Al Capone, a pack of backwoods bandits known as the Ashley Gang, and the visionaries and businessmen who poured their dreams and their cash into Florida in the roaring, raucous 1920s.
A tale of a colorful and tragicomic era during which the allure and illusion of the American Dream was on full display--a Jazz Age period when Americans started chasing what F. Scott Fitzgerald called "the orgiastic future"--the book reveals how the 2008 collapse of Florida real estate was eerily similar to events that happened there in the 1920s What sets the mid-1920s' Florida land boom apart from more recent booms-and-busts, however, is that this was the first time that emerging new technologies, mass communications, and modern advertising techniques were used to sell the nation on the notion that prosperity and happiness are entitlements that are simply there for the taking.
Florida's image as a place where the rules of everyday life don't apply and winners go to play was formed during this dawn of the age of consumerism when Americans wanted to have fun and make lots of money, and millions of them thought Florida was the perfect place to do that.
The story of how Florida became entwined with Americans' twentieth-century hopes, dreams, and expectations is also a tale of mass delusion, real estate collapses, and catastrophic hurricanes. For Sale--American Paradise hones in on the experiences of American icon William Jennings Bryan, journalist Edwin Menninger, and others who shaped the image of Florida that we know today and who sold that image as America's paradise. The cast also includes the Marx Brothers, Thomas Edison, Al Capone, a pack of backwoods bandits known as the Ashley Gang, and the visionaries and businessmen who poured their dreams and their cash into Florida in the roaring, raucous 1920s.
A tale of a colorful and tragicomic era during which the allure and illusion of the American Dream was on full display--a Jazz Age period when Americans started chasing what F. Scott Fitzgerald called "the orgiastic future"--the book reveals how the 2008 collapse of Florida real estate was eerily similar to events that happened there in the 1920s What sets the mid-1920s' Florida land boom apart from more recent booms-and-busts, however, is that this was the first time that emerging new technologies, mass communications, and modern advertising techniques were used to sell the nation on the notion that prosperity and happiness are entitlements that are simply there for the taking.
Florida's image as a place where the rules of everyday life don't apply and winners go to play was formed during this dawn of the age of consumerism when Americans wanted to have fun and make lots of money, and millions of them thought Florida was the perfect place to do that.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
312 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2015
3 people are currently reading
50 people want to read
About the author
Willie Drye
9 books1 followerWillie Drye has been chasing stories for more than 30 years and has written about everything from urban planning to wedding planning for magazines and newspapers across the US and Canada. His work has been published in the Washington Post, Toronto Globe and Mail, and other regional and national publications.
Drye is a contributing editor for National Geographic News and has written about hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis and dozens of other topics. His stories about Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike set page-view records at NG News.
He was the winner of the first place Charlie Award for Public Service from the Florida Magazine Association in 2007 for a package of stories about how Key West and the Florida Keys would be affected by a catastrophic hurricane. The stories were published in Key West Magazine.
Drye's first book, Storm of the Century: The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, was praised by Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, and others, and is regarded by many meteorologists as the definitive book about this tragic and fascinating event. The book was made into a documentary film by the History Channel titled "Nature's Fury: Storm of the Century."
Drye served in the US Army Medical Corps, earned an Honorable Discharge, and earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in North Carolina, where he divides his time between Plymouth and Wilmington.
Drye is a contributing editor for National Geographic News and has written about hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis and dozens of other topics. His stories about Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike set page-view records at NG News.
He was the winner of the first place Charlie Award for Public Service from the Florida Magazine Association in 2007 for a package of stories about how Key West and the Florida Keys would be affected by a catastrophic hurricane. The stories were published in Key West Magazine.
Drye's first book, Storm of the Century: The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, was praised by Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, and others, and is regarded by many meteorologists as the definitive book about this tragic and fascinating event. The book was made into a documentary film by the History Channel titled "Nature's Fury: Storm of the Century."
Drye served in the US Army Medical Corps, earned an Honorable Discharge, and earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in North Carolina, where he divides his time between Plymouth and Wilmington.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 27, 2018
Where do I begin.....
This is a book with an identity crisis. Is it a book about gangsters? Hurricanes? Movie stars? or Developers?? I have no earthly idea. If we are to go by the title, then one is under the assumption that you will be learning how Florida was built & sold to those looking for a dream. Instead....
We are given stories about some gang living in the Everglades, which the author never ties in to the narrative--does this gang scare people off from buying real estate? Who knows. (Then to top it off, when you get to the end of the book, in the notes about sources section, we are informed that most of what was in the book about said gang, is conjecture, as there aren't sources good enough to be considered as indisputable fact.... Great. THEN WHY ARE THEY EVEN MENTIONED IN THIS BOOK?!?!?)
Then, we are given exhaustive, detailed accounts of several hurricanes that blew through the area & the fight the Red Cross had with the developers to keep the bad news to a minimum. While the fight between the monied interest vs the Red Cross was interesting, the page after page of splintered homes and flying debris was just ponderous. Growing up in South Florida, I understand all too well that hurricanes are an integral part of life down here, but this isn't a book about hurricanes--At least not that I thought.
This brings me to the writing...... First, the tangents this guy takes us on are maddening. (Do we really need to know that some woman does the shimmy in Miami?!?) Then, when the author does actually take you down a path that coincides with the stated premise of the book, he just leaves you dangling. For example, Collier gets a county named after him, but what does Mr Collier do with it? We never find out. All we learn is that he eventually builds his portion of the Tamiami Trail, roughly 10 years after he said he would. Oh, and that he was an ad man back in NY. That we're told at least 10 times.... Like I said, maddening.... And if you were to take a drink for every time a paragraph started, while such-and-such was doing so-and so (which, mind you, we've just spent the last few pages reading about) this person was doing something else, you'd be in the hospital with alcohol poisoning. What editor didn't pick up on this?? It became a running joke throughout the book.
So in conclusion, if you like reading books that meander down paths with no rhyme or reason, and whose content may or may not be germane to the title of the book, then this is the book for you.
This is a book with an identity crisis. Is it a book about gangsters? Hurricanes? Movie stars? or Developers?? I have no earthly idea. If we are to go by the title, then one is under the assumption that you will be learning how Florida was built & sold to those looking for a dream. Instead....
We are given stories about some gang living in the Everglades, which the author never ties in to the narrative--does this gang scare people off from buying real estate? Who knows. (Then to top it off, when you get to the end of the book, in the notes about sources section, we are informed that most of what was in the book about said gang, is conjecture, as there aren't sources good enough to be considered as indisputable fact.... Great. THEN WHY ARE THEY EVEN MENTIONED IN THIS BOOK?!?!?)
Then, we are given exhaustive, detailed accounts of several hurricanes that blew through the area & the fight the Red Cross had with the developers to keep the bad news to a minimum. While the fight between the monied interest vs the Red Cross was interesting, the page after page of splintered homes and flying debris was just ponderous. Growing up in South Florida, I understand all too well that hurricanes are an integral part of life down here, but this isn't a book about hurricanes--At least not that I thought.
This brings me to the writing...... First, the tangents this guy takes us on are maddening. (Do we really need to know that some woman does the shimmy in Miami?!?) Then, when the author does actually take you down a path that coincides with the stated premise of the book, he just leaves you dangling. For example, Collier gets a county named after him, but what does Mr Collier do with it? We never find out. All we learn is that he eventually builds his portion of the Tamiami Trail, roughly 10 years after he said he would. Oh, and that he was an ad man back in NY. That we're told at least 10 times.... Like I said, maddening.... And if you were to take a drink for every time a paragraph started, while such-and-such was doing so-and so (which, mind you, we've just spent the last few pages reading about) this person was doing something else, you'd be in the hospital with alcohol poisoning. What editor didn't pick up on this?? It became a running joke throughout the book.
So in conclusion, if you like reading books that meander down paths with no rhyme or reason, and whose content may or may not be germane to the title of the book, then this is the book for you.
January 1, 2021
There is an earlier review posted here that I completely agree with. This book doesn't know what it's about. It's about Florida...but only parts of it. It's about people being "sold an impossible dream"...but it never demonstrated that it's impossible at all. Then it's about gangsters. Then it's about hurricanes. Then it's back to land speculation. Then at the very end, throw in some Jim Crow race relations and for good measure, mention the "gays and lesbians." For a book about Florida, it is all over the damn map.
If you played a drinking game and took a shot every time the author tells you what a dollar amount in the 20s is in "21st century dollars," you'd be dead before the second chapter. If you survived and switched the game to taking a shot every time the author explains how hurricanes work and barometer readings, you'd would be dead for sure by the end of the book.
For most of the book, I was convinced it had been written using only newspapers as sources. Halfway through, I checked out the "Notes" sections and had to search to find that the author did consult archives and other sources. The constant quoting of newspapers was tiresome to read page after page.
Much of the book felt like it was written in separate shorter stories and then just pieced together haphazardly because there was a deadline to meet. All in all, this book was a great book to sum up the 2020 vibe. Disappointing and just a bit of a mess.
If you played a drinking game and took a shot every time the author tells you what a dollar amount in the 20s is in "21st century dollars," you'd be dead before the second chapter. If you survived and switched the game to taking a shot every time the author explains how hurricanes work and barometer readings, you'd would be dead for sure by the end of the book.
For most of the book, I was convinced it had been written using only newspapers as sources. Halfway through, I checked out the "Notes" sections and had to search to find that the author did consult archives and other sources. The constant quoting of newspapers was tiresome to read page after page.
Much of the book felt like it was written in separate shorter stories and then just pieced together haphazardly because there was a deadline to meet. All in all, this book was a great book to sum up the 2020 vibe. Disappointing and just a bit of a mess.
Read
August 7, 2018This is a very detailed look at the beginning of Florida as a tourist destination/paradise home. Drye recounts the beginnings of the land rush, through the booms and depressions and criminal gangs and hurricanes. Biggest takeaway: Floridians have been crazy since the get-go!
February 14, 2018
This is the history of the Florida land rush in the early 1900's. The book tells the story of what was happening in the country, and how it set the stage of the selling of property in Florida. The building of roads, the celebrity involvement, and the hurricanes all played major roles. The book is informative about the history if Florida's development. It does tend to be dry in the telling of the story.
May 27, 2016
More skimmed than read. I liked the idea behind this book, but didn't like the pace. Way too much on the Ashley gang and the hurricane.
It was also somewhat poorly edited in that there was the same description of William Jennings Bryan multiple times. Almost as if the chapters were meant to be standalones.
It was also somewhat poorly edited in that there was the same description of William Jennings Bryan multiple times. Almost as if the chapters were meant to be standalones.
December 27, 2015
This author writes really well. The early history of Florida is fascinating. I wish that this type of entrepreneurial spirit still existed.
March 13, 2016
Interesting early history of beginnings of Florida development. Interesting characters like the Ashley gang, al capone, Wm Jennings Bryan, etc
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews