By Deb Carson
Do you know we have a national treasure living among us right here in Paradise? Author, eminent historian, and Florida scholar Gary R. Mormino’s latest book reads like fiction but isn’t. Dreams in the New Century delivers to those who’ve lived the Florida-life as natives, or for decades, but especially for newcomers, a must-read.
Following his landmark story of our state from 1950 to 2000 in Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams: A Social History of Modern Florida, Mormino’s newest takes readers on the 10-year bumpy ride that begins in 2000 with Florida at the millennial crossroads of America’s political destiny, replete with hanging chads that decided the outcome of the new century’s first presidential election.
Mormino covers 9/11 and the terrorists who trained first in Florida, landscape and human-altering hurricanes, Great Recession, the curious rise of Rubio, Scott & Trump, Ponzi schemes, the Elián González FBI stand-off in Little Havana, tests of “Stand Your Ground” law, the sad decline of our singular once-gin-clear springs and waterways, all book-ended by the culmination of another historic election, that of our nation’s first African American president. The tumultuous period filled with tensions and turning points that Mormino argues as Florida’s “Big Bang” details how the events of those years held significance for the rest of our nation, indeed the planet – and still does.
Subtitled Instant Cities, Shattered Hopes and Florida’s Turning Point, Mormino’s book is a stunning read and cautionary tale for Florida’s future, but in true Mormino spirit, filled with enduring love and hope for our collective place – our extraordinary state of Florida. “I can hope. We can hope,” he says. The book is available from University Press of Florida, Amazon, and other booksellers.
Gary Mormino is the Frank E. Duckwall Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Florida St. Petersburg, and the winner of the Florida Humanities Florida Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing where he serves as Florida Humanities Scholar in Residence. Co-founder of the USF Program of Distinction “Florida Studies,” Mormino has written numerous articles, appeared in television and documentary films, and authored multiple books including The Immigrant World of Ybor City: Italians and Their Latin Neighbors in Tampa, 1885–1985 and The Architecture of Leisure: The Florida Resort Hotels of Henry Flagler and Henry Plant.
Celebrate PRIDE month with a live multimedia presentation at three locations. Author Deb Carson’s book Becoming FLO is the inspiring true story of 16-year-old Orthodox Jewish Abraham who fled from his abusive, homophobic father, joined the circus, overcame anti-Semitism, became one of Ringling’s most famous clowns appearing in the center ring and on-screen, and found herself. June 15, 6:30pm, Palm Harbor Museum / June 23, 6pm, St. Petersburg Library (Roy Hanna Dr. S.) / June 28, 5:30pm, Florida CraftArt