Canter Brown

This book is an anthology of essays designed to introduce readers to key issues in a growing field of scholarship and to encourage further study. Divided into five sections - ""Jews and Judaism,"" ""Small Town Life,"" ""Business and Governance,"" ""Interaction,"" and ""Identity"" - the essays cover a broad geographical and chronological span and address a variety of topics, including economics, politics, roles of women, ethnicity, and race. This organizational structure enhances the volume's historical treatment of regional Jewish history and lends itself to cross-disciplinary study in fields such as cultural studies, religious studies, and political science.

The first biography of Henry Bradley Plant, the entrepreneur and business magnate considered the father of modern Florida. In this landmark biography, Canter Brown Jr. makes evident the extent of Henry Bradley Plant's influences throughout North, Central, and South America as well as his role in the emergence of integrated transportation and a national tourism system. One of the preeminent historians of Florida, Brown brings this important but understudied figure in American history to the foreground. Henry Bradley Plant: Gilded Age Dreams for Florida and a New South carefully examines the complicated years of adventure and activity that marked Plant's existence, from his birth in Connecticut in 1819 to his somewhat mysterious death in New York City in 1899. Brown illuminates Plant's vision and perspectives for the state of Florida and the country as a whole and traces many of his influences back to events from his childhood and early adulthood. The book also elaborates on Plant's controversial Civil War relationships and his utilization of wartime earnings in the postwar era to invest in the bankrupt Southern rail lines. With the success of his businesses such as the Southern Express Company and the Tampa Bay Hotel, Plant transformed Florida into a hub for trade and tourism-traits we still recognize in the Florida of today. This thoroughly researched biography fills important gaps in Florida's social and economic history and sheds light on a historical figure to an extent never previously undertaken or sufficiently appreciated. Both informative and innovative, this history will be a valuable resource for scholars and general readers interested in Southern history, business history, Civil War-era history, and transportation history.

The first biography of Henry Bradley Plant, the entrepreneur and business magnate considered the father of modern Florida. In this landmark biography, Canter Brown Jr. makes evident the extent of Henry Bradley Plant's influences throughout North, Central, and South America as well as his role in the emergence of integrated transportation and a national tourism system. One of the preeminent historians of Florida, Brown brings this important but understudied figure in American history to the foreground. Henry Bradley Plant: Gilded Age Dreams for Florida and a New South carefully examines the complicated years of adventure and activity that marked Plant's existence, from his birth in Connecticut in 1819 to his somewhat mysterious death in New York City in 1899. Brown illuminates Plant's vision and perspectives for the state of Florida and the country as a whole and traces many of his influences back to events from his childhood and early adulthood. The book also elaborates on Plant's controversial Civil War relationships and his utilization of wartime earnings in the postwar era to invest in the bankrupt Southern rail lines. With the success of his businesses such as the Southern Express Company and the Tampa Bay Hotel, Plant transformed Florida into a hub for trade and tourism-traits we still recognize in the Florida of today. This thoroughly researched biography fills important gaps in Florida's social and economic history and sheds light on a historical figure to an extent never previously undertaken or sufficiently appreciated. Both informative and innovative, this history will be a valuable resource for scholars and general readers interested in Southern history, business history, Civil War-era history, and transportation history.

Brown and Manley, two award-winning legal and Florida history scholars, offer an in-depth analysis of the court, the individuals who sat on its bench, the major subject areas of appeals it considered, and the influences that propelled its evolution during an era that was crucial to Florida's emergence as a national force. This court presided through two world wars, the issues of desegregation and growth management, court scandals, and the emergence of drug trafficking in South Florida. In a series of distinct but connected vignettes that draw effectively on oral interviews, the volume provides the first examination of the events that shaped the Florida Supreme Court. One of the few such studies of any state supreme court in the United States, it provides insights into judicial, political, and governmental processes applicable beyond the state. Further, it places hundreds of crucial court decisions within the context of state and national history. The authors delve deeply into controversies within the supreme court, including the associations, interests, and actions of individual tribunal members. Justices forgotten by history or subjected to professional slight emerge as dynamic and positive factors while the reputations of others, previously heralded for their service, face a level of critical scrutiny they had eluded. All of the men who served on the tribunal during the period appear unencumbered by the mystique of their office. As such, the authors offer a solid foundation for understanding scandals that rocked the court in the mid-1970s. From these circumstances emerged the court whose decision to recount the 2000 presidential election votes was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

This volume recounts the story of the founding and evolution of Fort Meade during the last half of the 19th century, when it was first established as a military outpost to separate Seminoles from white pioneer families desirous of cattle-grazing lands.