Bubble in the Sun: The Florida Boom of the 1920s and How It Brought on the Great Depression by Christopher Knowlton

Jan 05, 2020 Jeanette (Again) rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, america, net-galley, history

3.5 stars

I'll confess to feeling more than a frisson of schadenfreude at the final fates of the foolish fellows most responsible for the spectacular crash of the Florida real estate boom in the 1920s. They all died impoverished and in poor health, victims of their own greed and extravagant living.

These men made mountains of money early in the boom, and they could have lived richly for the rest of their lives on that money. But their greed and egos and need for prestige knew no bounds. They had ...more

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Oct 02, 2020 MicheleReader rated it really liked it

Bubble in the Sun is a work of non-fiction which details the Florida land boom that took place about 100 years ago. It’s an age old story of rich men behaving badly. Something that doesn’t surprise us today. Greed, status, wealth, power. Florida has seen it all. This is the story of the real estate moguls Carl Fisher, George Merrick and Addison Mizner. While they helped to create South Florida, their ambition ultimately led to their ruin. Not one of the men profiled survived the boom with his fo Bubble in the Sun is a work of non-fiction which details the Florida land boom that took place about 100 years ago. It’s an age old story of rich men behaving badly. Something that doesn’t surprise us today. Greed, status, wealth, power. Florida has seen it all. This is the story of the real estate moguls Carl Fisher, George Merrick and Addison Mizner. While they helped to create South Florida, their ambition ultimately led to their ruin. Not one of the men profiled survived the boom with his fortune or health intact.

I found this book absolutely fascinating. The era was post World War I and people were looking to invest. People had money and many had cars. Buying land in Florida became a sure-fire way of getting wealthy. Credit was easy to get. Prices continued to rise. The developers were getting very rich and living lavish lifestyles. These men didn’t just create developments, they were creating new towns such as Coral Gables. “Binder boys” helped serve as selling agents. But then came the bust. Land prices rose too high. People became sellers, no longer buyers. The Hurricane of 1928 and news that South Florida was essentially wiped out destroyed any lingering desire for people to invest in land. The Great Depression soon followed.

While the developer kings were ruined, their legacies remain. They helped to create now vibrant cities, which would end up growing and becoming successful in the decades to come. Architect Addison Mizner’s influence in Palm Beach and Boca Raton are still very visible. This is where I live and his style continues to define much of the area.

A hero in this tale of excess is Marjory Stoneman Douglas and the other environmentalists who stopped ill conceived developments in the Everglades and elsewhere. Stoneman Douglas was a true pioneer. At age 103 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She lived to age 108.

If you live in or enjoy visiting South Florida, you might find Bubble In the Sun as engaging as I did.

Review posted on MicheleReader.com.
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Jul 31, 2020 Aura rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, florida

At the turn of the century, Florida was nothing but swampland. It was considered a frontier state with a sparse population. Then came the tycoons, among them Flagler and Rockefeller with their money and ventures and followed by droves and droves of people. The author documents the development of hotels and golf courses by rich men for rich people. It is an interesting story of how Florida became such a densely populated state. I always thought well of Mr. Flagler as so many buildings, roads, pla ...more

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Oct 06, 2019 David Wineberg rated it it was amazing

It all started with Standard Oil money. Henry Flagler, Rockefeller’s partner (who John D. called the brains of the Standard Oil Trust) retired from the company and discovered the new frontier – Florida. Like a Jeff Bezos pushing into outer space, Flagler spent what today would be billions developing land in Florida and building a railway to and through it. This opened the state to freight and passengers, and the madness of the bubble began. Where mere mortals saw swamps, clouds of mosquitos and It all started with Standard Oil money. Henry Flagler, Rockefeller’s partner (who John D. called the brains of the Standard Oil Trust) retired from the company and discovered the new frontier – Florida. Like a Jeff Bezos pushing into outer space, Flagler spent what today would be billions developing land in Florida and building a railway to and through it. This opened the state to freight and passengers, and the madness of the bubble began. Where mere mortals saw swamps, clouds of mosquitos and impenetrable jungles, Flagler saw a potential wonderland.

In Christopher Knowlton’s excellent Bubble in the Sun, the young billionaires of the era flocked to the state, making it a high end, luxury destination for them and their kind. The book examines the excesses they went to, and how they built new fortunes selling their dreams (and their partying) to the rest of the country.

Over the (Roaring) 1920s, they would buy up raw land, subdivide it and put it on the market. Like bees to honey, people literally threw money at brokers to own their own piece. Knowlton relates how new records were set every time a development came to market, with millions committed on the first day of sales alone. At one point, he says, people were literally throwing checks at brokers, which had to be collected in a barrel because they couldn’t fill out the contracts fast enough. By the height of it all, there developed a shortage of police, because so many quit to become real estate agents.

The book thoroughly profiles the highflyers of the bubble, in all their anachronistic and anarchistic character. William Jennings Bryan, who got dragged into it as a shill, admitted “Coral Gables is the only city in the world where you can tell a lie at breakfast that will come true by evening.”

My own favorites are the Mizner brothers, the architect and the grifter, who rose to national fame on the back of the bubble. I treasure my first edition of Alva Johnston’s profile of them (The Legendary Mizners, 1952), and Knowlton gives him credit as he digs into the lives of all these hustlers from across the country and a couple from Europe too. They made billions in a short time, then lost it all and more even faster.

One was a bicycle racer who made his first fortune repairing bicycles in Indianapolis. Bikes had recently replaced the unworkable penny-farthings and become all the rage. He turned out to be quite the showman. After building the Indianapolis 500 Speedway, he took on Florida, where among other things, he developed cheesecake – the photos of young women in bathing suits that made the rest of the country wonder what they were missing. Like all of them, the bubble’s instability escaped him, and he died essentially penniless. Another megastar ended as a failing real estate agent, another became a beggar, and at least one committed suicide. Several blew their massive inheritances trying to make their own fortunes. These were people who until recently had fleets of buses and limousines circulating all over the southeast, bringing prospects to see for themselves. One employed an elephant as a golf caddy. They built world class marketing organizations so their projects were always in the newspapers all over the country. Prohibition was openly laughed off. Parties were everything.

The signs of a bubble were there, but everyone carried on regardless. Then a series of hurricanes wiped out almost everything they had built, and scared off new prospects. Even Flagler’s railway to the Florida Keys was torn to shreds, and no one raised their hand to restore it. Land prices plunged, banks closed, lending ceased, investors vaporized. The stock market crash of 1929 was the final nail, plunging the whole country into a depression the likes of which had never been seen in America. Nobody wanted to buy anything in that atmosphere. Nobody gave Florida another thought.

A new generation of billionaires scooped up the remains at bargain prices and the cycle has of course repeated. Today, it’s rising seas and more violent hurricanes that are the primary threats, but that has stopped nothing in the way of land development. As long as prices are rising, everyone is happy to dive right in.

There are three things that make Bubble in the Sun outstanding, besides the characters, who wrote themselves for Knowlton. He is careful to put things in perspective, because we take so much for granted. He explains the rolling daisy-chain effects of the depression so readers can see how it deepened and took Florida down. He explains the monetary policy of the era, banking policy as it was then, and always tells readers what a dollar amount would mean in today’s money. All this keeps the book from being just a flat history that today’s readers could not relate to. This adds tremendous value.

Knowlton also seems to have tapped everyone in the world for their takes on the players and the era. He assembled everyone’s contributions into an easy-reading, engaging and often exciting tale that is seamless where it could easily have been disjointed. A tremendous amount of work went into Bubble in the Sun, and it wears well.

Finally, he is very clear on the racism of the builders. Communities had in their very contacts that no one could sell to a non-white. Blacks could work in construction or service (after protests by a megarich doyenne to the state about her need for servants), but lived in shantytowns far away. That this was normal for the times is no excuse. These innovative builders missed a huge opportunity to make a real difference. But the difference they were after was who died with the most toys.

I was particularly taken with Knowlton’s emphasis on Marjory Stoneman Douglas, born and raised in the Miami area – the only one. She started out in journalism because her father ran the paper, but developed into a national storyteller for the Saturday Evening Post. She lived alone, appreciating more and more the nature she grew up with as the developers made it disappear. She became a rabid environmentalist, attempting to stanch the destruction of the Everglades, the main source of freshwater in the state. As Frank Barbour said in 1944: “It was an easy state for man to ruin and he ruined it with ruthless efficiency.” She outlived all of the other characters, getting a Congressional Medal of Honor from the president at the age of 103. She was a product of the bubble, one that turned out far better because of it, and far better than all the celebrity developers combined. Knowlton acknowledges her outsized contribution to there being more to life than making billions destroying a state.

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Jan 19, 2020 Michael Perkins added it

I've done a bestseller on the tech stock bubble, so the dynamic of this bubble, especially the irrational psychology behind it (FOMO) was very familiar.

The book really has no story arc. It's largely episodic, full of a lot of detail, which makes for a choppy read. But I think the formula was clear. The tycoons were selling average people something that was too good to be true. They were told there was a chance you could "flip" the "land" you bought to someone else and pocket the gain. Too much o ...more

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Jan 24, 2021 Travis rated it it was amazing

Very informative book full of personality telling a little-known chapter of American history. Knowlton does a great job introducing and connecting the various players across the decades of Florida's real estate boom. This book gave me a whole new understanding of the development of Florida and the effect real estate speculation has on the overall economy. ...more

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Jan 05, 2020 Amy Robertson rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2020-releases, netgalley

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for an advance of this title in exchange for my honest review. Bubble in the Sun, by author Christopher Knowlton , was like reading about the Gold Rush, of the West, but rather the land rush of the state of Florida. From early discovery of Florida's beaches, to the purchasing of land, through the industrialization of the state, to development, and marketing, Knowlton creates a picture of wealth and glamorous living. We learn of the railroad expansion Thank you to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for an advance of this title in exchange for my honest review. Bubble in the Sun, by author Christopher Knowlton , was like reading about the Gold Rush, of the West, but rather the land rush of the state of Florida. From early discovery of Florida's beaches, to the purchasing of land, through the industrialization of the state, to development, and marketing, Knowlton creates a picture of wealth and glamorous living. We learn of the railroad expansion and the hotel industry. The billions of dollars dumped into the creation of this, America's new playland, were astronomical, by the standards of then and now. Developers and investors were not interested in keeping up with one and other. Bigger, better, newer, more luxurious and more outrageous were the expectations.

The book goes on to follow the dreams of the movers and shakers of the prospect. The many interesting stories and people were shared in great wonderment and detail. Everyone wanted a piece of this action and there was no shortage of buyers. The prohibition was in full swing, but in Florida, the excesses of alcohol and luxury partying were welcome. People could not get enough or fast enough. At one point in the book it states "4000 people were entering Florida daily by car, an additional 3,000 by train, and hundreds more by ship". The author tells us this is a conservative estimation and does not include vacationers, snowbirds, retirees, etc. Populations soared, realty was booming, and the money flowed.

Finally, as all good things must come to an end, it was the natural disasters of Florida hurricanes that burst it's economic bubble and broke the state of financial strength. This not only devastated investors and developers, but shut down banks and sent people fleeing the state. All those involved were left destitute and broke. They lost, and they lost big, most never again to regain their fortunes and inheritances. Coinciding with Stock Market Crash of 1929, the Florida Sun Bubble became nothing but a poor investment example in greed and excessive overspending.

Very interesting read. Certainly a topic in which I had never considered. Full of fast talkers and big spenders, glitz, and doom. Maybe a bit lengthy, but I would recommend this read.

#netgalley #simonandschuster #bookreview @Bubbleinthesun #nonfiction ...more

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Sep 10, 2020 Dancing Marshmallow rated it liked it

Shelves: history, reviewed, non-fiction

Overall: 3 stars. A historical examination of a fascinating topic and time that was a little bogged down by pacing and narrative/story-telling inconsistencies.

Pros: What a fascinating part of American history that I didn’t know much about previously: the story of real estate development in Florida in the 1920s reads a bit like The Big Short meets The Great Gatsby: glitz and glamor and corruption with a splash of sad fatalism. I also appreciate that the author did not shy away from covering the ...more

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Sep 28, 2020 Jamie rated it really liked it

For some time now, I have wanted to take a tour of Flagler College in Saint Augustine, Florida. I know we also have Flagler County and who knows how many Flagler Avenues, but before reading this book, I knew next to nothing about Henry Flagler. I was surprised to learn that he was actually one of Rockefeller's partners and, "[when] John D. Rockefeller was asked if the Standard Oil company was the result of his thinking, he answered, 'No, sir. I wish I had the brains to think of it. It was Henry ...more

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Apr 07, 2020 Patrick SG rated it it was amazing

Excellent and engaging read about the great Florida boom of the first quarter of the 20th century. Don't let the subtitle suggesting an economics lesson put you off. This is a well-written, engaging profile of the larger than life people who converted America's last frontier (pre-Alaska) into an exotic playground for the rich and those who hoped to be..

By profiling about a half-dozen key movers and shakers of the Florida boom, Knowlton draws a detailed, yet entertaining look at how a swampy, hot ...more

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Oct 21, 2020 Fred Forbes rated it really liked it

I got into this one for two reasons. First, as a long time Floridian who spends a lot of time in the areas covered (much of the state, actually) I wanted to get into the discussion of the people who shaped our culture (?) and history. Second, the book makes the claim that the Florida land boom and bust was a huge contributor to the collapse of the economy in the nineteen twenties and actually makes a pretty good case for that. Well written, notated and sourced and worthy of interest for any Flor ...more

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Dec 07, 2020 Nann rated it really liked it

One of the characters in the wonderful novel Florence Adler Swims Forever, which I read several weeks ago, was caught up in the 1920s Florida land boom. When Bubble in the Sun was well-reviewed I was intrigued -- and now I know a LOT more about the early 20th century real estate wheeling and dealing that made modern Florida. Knowlton doesn't write only about the land guys -- he also includes Marjory Stoneman Douglas who crusaded to preserve the Everglades. It's quite a story and it's very well-w ...more

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Jul 17, 2020 Maria rated it really liked it

This is a fascinating, frenetic, and fun account of a wild time in economic history: the Roaring Twenties and Florida's development and real estate. The author's thesis is that this contributed greatly to the Great Depression. But he also delves into the lives of the men and women--specifically George Merrick, Carl Fisher, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and Addison Mizner--who were key players. The cultural history of the decade and the architectural history of South Florida is engrossing and enterta ...more

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Feb 08, 2020 Rita Ciresi rated it really liked it

For fans of Florida lore. Of special interest to me were the stories of architect Addison Mizner and the mysterious disappearance at sea of D.P. Davis, founder of Davis Islands.

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Sep 11, 2020 Dawn rated it liked it

Shelves: 1920s-30s, history, non-fiction

Interesting

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Oct 08, 2020 Andrew rated it it was amazing

I loved this kind of book—an in depth analysis and social history of a specific time and place told through the stories of various interesting personages. Knowlton keeps the story moving with wild and interesting anecdotes. He doesn’t let the history get in the way of his telling us about an interesting time in American history(the Florida land boom and bust of the 20’s) but he really knows his history. A great combo. Highly recommended.

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Aug 10, 2020 Ellen Loulou rated it it was amazing

Very engaging. Especially illuminating as to how the present is very much on a continuum of historical precedent.

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Dec 30, 2020 Susan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This book was recommended to Rick and it was our first attempt at listening to an audiobook together on a trip. I found it very interesting given that we have lived in Florida twice and recognized most of the places that were discussed. The book covered the 1920s and connected the Florida land boom to the Great Depression. I found the description of rum running during prohibition to be very much like the drug running portrayed in Miami Vice. It was very telling that these very wealthy developers ...more

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Jan 14, 2020 S. Smith rated it it was amazing

The author's lively style matches the exuberant tempo of the times chronicled in this well-documented social, economic, and environmental history of boom and bust in Florida. His intriguing analysis of the Sunshine State's real estate craze during the 1920s and his memorable prose portraits of the wild, risk-taking characters who drove the development of South Florida will interest both general readers and specialists. Note: The publisher supplied an advance reading copy via NetGalley in exchang ...more

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Dec 13, 2019 Sue Fernandez rated it really liked it

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for an advance of this title in exchange for my honest review. I didn't know what to expect from this book, but it looked interesting. I wanted to see where it was going. I'll warn you that the foreward/beginning of the book is a bit slow, but once you get past that the book is so very interesting. Florida was a swamp, and it became a place for the elite to play.
One thing I loved was the author's ability to describe the people, the place and the tim ...more

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Mar 31, 2020 Thomas rated it really liked it

Fascinating history of the hucksters and promoters who began the Florida land boom of the 1920s. Speculation and hype were strong factors. The author postulates that the boom and bust was a major factor in the Depression of the 1930s.

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May 17, 2020 K rated it really liked it

I wouldn't really give this a 4-star rating, as it's more of a 3.5. It's fast-paced and interesting, but it gets bogged down with too much name dropping about rich people that nobody has ever heard of, and the author spends 60% of the book getting to his main point and then brushes off that point in about 10 pages of information that's not presented clearly. I realize that he didn't want to write a dry economics or business textbook, but instead to make his business point around the charismatic ...more

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Feb 25, 2020 David Valentino rated it really liked it

Babbitt Writ in SOLID CAPS

Sinclair Lewis created a fictional character, George Babbitt, to flog the ballyhoo and boosterism that was just shifting into gear at the start of the Roaring Twenties. But George, also a real estate man, could not hold a candle to the crowd that flocked to Florida, razed its natural beauty, and erected cities, towns, shopping districts, vacation spots, and highways on natural and manufactured land, nor to their exaggeration, and dubious, as well as outright illegal, fi Babbitt Writ in SOLID CAPS

Sinclair Lewis created a fictional character, George Babbitt, to flog the ballyhoo and boosterism that was just shifting into gear at the start of the Roaring Twenties. But George, also a real estate man, could not hold a candle to the crowd that flocked to Florida, razed its natural beauty, and erected cities, towns, shopping districts, vacation spots, and highways on natural and manufactured land, nor to their exaggeration, and dubious, as well as outright illegal, finances. The Twenties did Roar and they appeared to have Roared loudest in Florida.

Christopher Knowlton has written quite a snappy history of the Florida boom and bust. He focuses primarily on four fascinating, driven, smart, and fatally flawed entrepreneurs of the era: Addison Mizner, who created the boom’s architectural and design palette; George Merrick, a man of great vision who envisioned a complete planned city, Coral Gables; Carl Fisher, perhaps the most daring and resourceful of the bunch, race car and boat competitor, inventor, and builder, who literally burned through life; and D. P. Davis, another man who thought and created on a grand scale only to vanish at sea. Then there was the person who worked in counterbalance to land forming, Margery Stoneman Douglas, the environmentalist and author, who set out to save the Everglades, and who outlived not only the men but that era and a couple more, dying at 108. But he starts at the beginning with Henry Flagler, a founder of Standard Oil, who through development of St. Augustine and his famous railroad laid the foundation for what was to follow. Readers will find each and every page of this history fascinating and crammed with information and facts they may not have been aware of. As an example,

“And in sheer numbers, the flow of people to Florida in the mid-1920s would exceed any of the great land rushes of the past: the 300,000 or so to California from 1848 to 1852, for instance, or the 50,000 to Oklahoma in 1889. By 1925, it would be conservatively estimated that 4,000 people were entering Florida daily by car, an additional 3,000 by train, and a hundred more by ship. In total, some 2.5 million entered the state that year alone.” The facts, all quite astounding, keep coming page after page.

History offers up lessons for those who follow, if they are willing to read and listen. Naturally, everyday people and leaders either don’t or deny the facts in favor of expediency of the moment. Those in Florida should have known a bust was coming, that in some ways the whole adventure was a bit like a Charles Ponzi, con man of the day, concoction. But when the money is rolling in, it seems it will roll forever, and even if you think it might end. And, well, who wants to be the sucker who pulls up stakes too soon? Knowlton, a past financial executive and writer, contends that the Florida real estate bust was a major contributor to the Great Depression. Further, he draws striking parallels to the recent Great Recession. For many interested in busts and learning from them, these chapters, “Speculative Dementia” and “A Legacy of Greed and Folly,” may prove to be of most interest. Drawing on viewpoints of various economists in the monetarist and macroeconomic camps, he marshals strong support for his contention. As an example, from the latter chapter comes this that at the very least makes one aware that history in fact repeats time and again:

“In many ways, the Florida of the 1920s was a precursor of America one hundred years later. In Florida then, as in the United States at the moment, two affluent coasts were separated by an often impoverished, largely agricultural interior. Inequitable wealth distribution, racial intolerance, xenophobia, and rising nationalism—the KKK being the most blatant manifestation back then—were combined with a dangerous over reliance on laissez-fare economics and a governance structure where bankers and businesspeople wielded inordinate influence on policy. To complete the analogy, the political leadership of day displayed profound indifference to the fate of the environment and to society’s less fortunate. It didn’t end well then, which portends a dismal future for us now unless we change course.”

So not only is Bubble in the Sun a terrific read regarding ballyhoo and boosterism, of business run amok, of government corruption, and of gigantic personalities, but it also serves up a helping of history that pointed to our fate in 2008 and perhaps one not too far in our 20s future. ...more

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Oct 28, 2020 Lynn rated it really liked it

Shelves: library-books, real-life, non-fiction, historial

Today’s post is on Bubble in the Sun: The Florida Boom of the 1920s and How It Brought on the Great Depression by Christopher Knowlton. It is 411 pages long and is published by Simon & Schuster. The cover has some flappers in swimsuits and a row of hotels on top. There is mild foul language, discussion of sex and sexuality, and no violence in this book.

From the dust jacket- The 1920s in Florida was a time of incredible excess, immense wealth, and precipitous collapse. The decade there produced Today’s post is on Bubble in the Sun: The Florida Boom of the 1920s and How It Brought on the Great Depression by Christopher Knowlton. It is 411 pages long and is published by Simon & Schuster. The cover has some flappers in swimsuits and a row of hotels on top. There is mild foul language, discussion of sex and sexuality, and no violence in this book.

From the dust jacket- 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. Yet, the import and deep impact of these historical events have never been explored thoroughly until now.
In Bubble in the Sun Christopher Knowlton examines the grand artistic and entrepreneurial visions behind Coral Gables, Boca Raton, Miami Beach, and other storied sites, as well as the darker side of the frenzy. For while giant fortunes were being made and lost and the nightlife raged more raucously than anywhere else, the pure beauty of the Everglades suffered wanton ruination and the workers, mostly black, who built and maintained the boom, endured grievous abuses.
Knowlton breathes dynamic life into the forces that made and wrecked Florida during the decade: the real estate moguls Carl Fisher, George Merrick, and Addison Mizner, and the once-in-a-century hurricane whose aftermath triggered the stock market crash. This essential account is a revelatory—and riveting—history of an era that still affects our country today.

Review- This is a fascinating story about how small things will led into something bigger and affect the lives of millions of people in the future. Florida had been mostly ignored by the public but for a few rich sport fisherman then some wealthy people bought land and started to build themselves some very nice houses. After that more and more come to live, work, and be free in Florida. There were land developers, good time gals, and more. It is an interesting story with very interesting people who did not understand what they started or how it was going to make them suffer in the end. At times with all the details and people to keep track of, the reader can get over-whelmed but the story is interesting and well worth your time.

I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library. ...more

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Nov 27, 2020 Cropredy rated it liked it

Shelves: history

I'm a sucker for books that attempt to explain the Great Depression and the title of this intrigued me. I do not live in Florida though did spend two years in zoning-free Tampa in the mid-nineties.

As such, the history of Florida in the 1920s was sort of interesting. It was the last great frontier in the continental United States. Lack of roads and railroads and a less-than-ideal climate during the summer months (no A/C back then) made Florida mostly inaccessible until the late 1890's when the fi I'm a sucker for books that attempt to explain the Great Depression and the title of this intrigued me. I do not live in Florida though did spend two years in zoning-free Tampa in the mid-nineties.

As such, the history of Florida in the 1920s was sort of interesting. It was the last great frontier in the continental United States. Lack of roads and railroads and a less-than-ideal climate during the summer months (no A/C back then) made Florida mostly inaccessible until the late 1890's when the first railroad was built down to Miami from Georgia. Later came the first roads once automobiling had taken off in the 1910's.

The lure of a bucolic winter climate for rich northerners inspired developers to put up grand resorts and hotels. These were hugely successful and like real estate everywhere, brought on more development. With the end of World War I and Spanish Flu, the US economy boomed and -- what a surprise -- people all across the nation started hearing about overnight fortunes being made in the matter of weeks. Soon, ordinary folks were enticed into buying undeveloped pieces of land in the hope of a quick buck. Better-heeled developers competed for ever grander projects - some catering to the wealthy, others to the punters. Many a famous person flocked to Florida - an oasis of lax-to-no enforcement of Prohibition.

This book is primarily a story about four of the leading developers who became fabulously rich in a short period of time, then became over-leveraged and when the inevitable boom stopped around 1927 or so, careened into desperate misfortune. All of this was before the stock market crash.

There are some asides to pioneers in Florida ecology, the shutting out of any economic gain by the state's resident African Americans, a devastating hurricane or two, Al Capone and so on. The book was a mixture of analytical history and society page history. There's only so many affairs one can read about as the developers descended into dissolution.

A few photos and no maps so pity the reader who can't place Boca Raton from Coral Gables.

The author's assertion that the collapse in property values led to a curtailment of economic activity by millions that in turn led to a cut in demand for industrial and consumer goods and thus thousands of bank failures; then rinse and repeat is plausible but the argument is made in prose rather than in charts so I suspect any economist reading this book would be hungry for more.

If you thought the over-the-toppedness of The Great Gatsby was limited to Newport, guess again as it was replicated up and down the coast of Florida in the 1920s.

I suspect this book would be of more interest to native Floridians interested in the history of their state and the origins of certain names and landmarks. I found it moderately informative. There were a few interesting "tells" of a bubble - like an edition of the Miami Herald that had 500! pages of real estate listings.
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Nov 25, 2019 Online Eccentric Librarian rated it it was amazing

Shelves: arc, non-fiction, historical

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Bubble In The Sun is a thoroughly researched and engagingly written history of the Florida land boom in the 1920s. The book focuses mainly on four real estate speculators: Carl Fisher in Miami Beach, Addison Mizner in Palm Beach and Boca Raton, George Merrick in Coral Gables, and David Paul D. P. Davis in Tampa and St. Augstine. But other important individuals such as Henry Flagler (investor) and Marjory Stoneman Doug More reviews at the Online Eccentric Librarian http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

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Bubble In The Sun is a thoroughly researched and engagingly written history of the Florida land boom in the 1920s. The book focuses mainly on four real estate speculators: Carl Fisher in Miami Beach, Addison Mizner in Palm Beach and Boca Raton, George Merrick in Coral Gables, and David Paul D. P. Davis in Tampa and St. Augstine. But other important individuals such as Henry Flagler (investor) and Marjory Stoneman Douglas (writer and preservationist) receive attention in this account of how Florida went from swampland to exotic hotel escape and then to exotic and alluringly-named subdivisions in the span of a few short decades.

The history is chronological, starting with Henry Flagler arriving in Florida at the turn of the century and seeing opportunities in the seaside East Coast with its soft sand beaches and excellent weather. He built an initial infrastructure (railroads) to bring the people to Florida and then he built huge and exotic hotels that would cater to the wealthy New Englanders looking for an place for Summer Homes or upscale hotels. From there, the opportunists came and took huge risks and chances in buying and selling Florida land for subdivisions.

Author Knowlton provides a lot of background information on each individual profiled as well as the environment in the country at the time. That big picture was useful to put everything into perspective but as a small nitpick was also bordering on overly tangential filler. But this is definitely not a book where you will be left with questions. If anything, I found myself next to the computer several times to look at old post cards and photographs of the original architecture (I wish there could have been images but understand the costs associated with printing images). The information is nicely presented in a conversational way, as if told by a great storytelling recalling his old days in roaring 20s Florida.

The writing is extremely engaging and we definitely get a feel for each of the individuals - their personality, drives, foibles, weaknesses, and exceptional strengths - along with the wives, friends, servants, etc. that enabled their successes or contributed to their downfalls. As well, other important aspects of the time such as racism and the fate of the black workers who toiled there are also given full treatment. It's a very well rounded approach that really gives a complete picture: the infrastructure, the money, the goals, the pitfalls, the crazy speculation, and finally the factors/events that contributed to the beginning of the Great Depression.

The subtitle gives the best indication of the focus of the book: it about defining how the Florida land speculation and development craze greatly contributed to the Great Depression. Knowlton is careful to separate the stock market crash as NOT being the beginning of the Depression and instead discusses all the signs that were foreshadowing 1929 (especially the sudden reticence/cessation of investments and speculation around 1926 in Florida). So although this may seem like a historical, in reality I would consider the history as fact building in order to support Knowlton's later assertion that Florida was a major cause of the Depression. Unlike many history books, Knowlton's writing isn't dry but it isn't meant to be a simple factual. He freely gives his thoughts and opinions throughout, most of which feel very rooted in facts and not hyperbole.

In all, I greatly enjoyed this book. It gave great perspective on Florida in the 1920s but also on the reasons why the Great Depression was inevitable. It was a period of wild speculation throughout the US but no where more concentrated than in land investment on both coasts of the State of Florida. All perpetrated by, to quote the book, "a handful of daring men who, eager for fame and wealth, took enormous risks to open up Florida for real estate development and then chased the boom to its ruinous conclusion." Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher. ...more

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Jul 15, 2020 Judy Egnew Ness rated it it was amazing

I got this book for my birthday and finally started reading it last week. It's very well-written and engaging. More than just a history of early development in Florida, it illustrates the roller-coaster ride of one of the craziest real estate booms in history. If you always thought the Great Depression was set off by the stock market crash of 1929, you may not have heard about the boom-and-bust history of the Florida land rush, and the large sums of money bet and lost on imagined fortunes. Fraud ...more

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Jan 13, 2020 Susan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2020-reading-challenge

When a book is written this well history comes alive, in technicolor. It has it all - huge fortunes, huge homes, huge dreams and it all comes together to create the Florida we know today. Billions and billions of dollars spent by today's values and nothing was thought to be impossible. Family fortunes had been made in oil and sewing machines, chemicals and lumber and now that money was being spent to build a tropical playground for America. What a playground it turned out to be. From Flagler bui ...more

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Jan 18, 2020 O Prism rated it it was amazing

Wow! What a GREAT read! One of the best mystery/thrillers I’ve read recently! A tale of two sexual assaults, 25 years apart, woven together by a podcaster who inadvertently connects the two when a relative of the former crime anonymously contacts her pleading for her to investigate during her coverage of the present one. And how, does she connect! This story will make you think, and question what you believe wrt morals, ethics, and sexual assault/rape. This book had everything - who to trust or ...more

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Jul 02, 2020 Peacejanz rated it liked it

Shelves: completed

This easy to read book is history about the movers and shakers in Florida during the 20th Century. Knowlton has researched the people with grand schemes and those with the money to fund them. He also included people with grand schemes who died broke. It is a tell-all book about the affairs of the rich and famous and the monies and life they brought to south and central east coast Florida. He details the extra-marital affairs along with the faux marriages. It really starts with Flagler who brough ...more

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