7 Questions with Robert Jacob, Author, Historian, and Reenactor

 

With a lifelong passion for history, Robert Jacob has been heavily involved in living history interpretation and reenacting for over 40 years. He has participated in activities covering a wide range of time periods including French and Indian War and Revolutionary War reenactment groups, Western Gun Fighter groups, Mountain Man Rendezvous and Renaissance Fairs. During the past 12 years he has focused on the golden age of piracy.

Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, Robert graduated from Duquesne University with a Bachelor’s Degree in education in 1978. He taught in the West Point public school district, West Point, VA for five years while completing his Master’s Degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1983.  In 1982, Robert entered the United States Marine Corps reserve and augmented to active duty in 1983. During his service, he became a military occupational specialty instructor and earned the designation of Master Training Specialist. Later in his career, he became the Commanding Officer of the Marine Detachment at the same school where he had earlier instructed. He achieved the rank of Chief Warrant Officer 5 and retired after 31 years of service in 2013.

While researching information on the golden age of piracy, Robert realized that most of the publications on the subject were contradictory and even incorrect. This motivated him to write his award-winning first publication, “A Pirate’s Life in the Golden Age of Piracy.” After its release, his readers expressed a strong interest in the pirates that visited the coast of Florida. This inspired Robert to write his second book that focused on them, “Pirates of the Florida Coast: Truths, Legends, and Myths.” Robert is still a living historian. He is also a lecturer on a wide variety of historical topics and a public speaker who has appeared on the History Channel’s series “Beyond Oak Island” as an expert on pirates.

While researching information on the golden age of piracy, Robert realized that most of the publications on the subject were contradictory and even incorrect. This motivated him to write his award-winning first publication, “A Pirate’s Life in the Golden Age of Piracy.” After its release, his readers expressed a strong interest in the pirates that visited the coast of Florida. This inspired Robert to write his second book that focused on them, “Pirates of the Florida Coast: Truths, Legends, and Myths.” Robert is still a living historian. He is also a lecturer on a wide variety of historical topics and a public speaker who has appeared on the History Channel’s series “Beyond Oak Island” as an expert on pirates.  (Website http://www.robertjacobauthor.com/ )

1. How and when did you get hooked on history?

 

I have a lifelong passion for history. Even when I was 8 years old, I was fascinated with historical events and very annoyed when the media got history wrong. For example, I would be infuriated when soldiers were using model 1873 Colt Single Action Army pistols in a Civil War story. As such, I began reenacting at age 15. First the French & Indian War and then the Revolutionary War. I’ve been doing living history ever since. That’s a little over 50 years now.

 

2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?

 

One really can’t separate history from one’s life. Historical knowledge comes into play with every decision. On the lighter side, I have been a living historian (reenactor) since 1971. As my main hobby, all my free time was consumed with either reenacting history or studying it. My mother was a hostess at Colonial Williamsburg and lived next to the Yorktown Battlefield.

 

3. How does history play a part of your professional life/career?

 

I served in the United States Marine Corps for 31 years. The Corps recognizes the value in a thorough knowledge of history when it comes to battlefield study. My historical knowledge was greatly expanded through professional battle case studies in the Corps. We even went to Gettysburg and walked the battlefield as part of officer training. Now, my profession is giving history lectures on a variety of topics and selling my two books, which are basically history texts.

 

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?

 

Thorough knowledge of history comes into play with each life decision. It certainly has a significant impact on deciding who to vote for in elections.  

 

5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?

 

I have always been fascinated with the 16^th century. Not sure why! All history fascinates me actually, but there is a little something extra with that century. Perhaps it’s the rapid change the world went through with the age of exploration.

 

6. You’ve written two books about pirates and the Florida coast. How is their story an important part of Florida and American history?

 

My first book, A Pirate’s Life in the Golden Age of Piracy, is a comprehensive look at all the most famous pirates and privateers from 1625-1722. It also brings in all the politics of the European nations and how they affected piracy. The reader will learn far more about history than just pirates. My second book, Pirates of the Florida Coast, deals specifically with all those pirates and privateers associated with Florida, the real ones and the not so real ones. A great part of history is getting it right. Setting the record straight. This book does that for Florida. It dispels some of the legends and puts them in their proper place as a fascinating fictional story. But it also brings light to some of the real history of Florida pirates that most scholars have overlooked.

 

7. What projects do you have coming up in the future?

 

My third book is in the works, The Truth About Blackbeard’s Treasure.

7 Questions With Erwin Wunderlich, Author

 

Wunderlich grew up in 1950s Florida, fascinated by the stories and experiences of his ancestors and their recollections dating back to the time of statehood.  Starting in his teenage years, he began to record some of their memories, names, and dates that might someday be important to others. When it came time to consider prospective colleges, he had the opportunity to visit the Naval Academy and  subsequently earned an appointment there.   After a subsequent time in the submarine service, he and his wife Susan returned to Florida. Through the years, he earned two masters degrees, one in business and the other in engineering, and a doctorate degree in education. He and Susan raised four children, each of which would themselves attend service academies and become military officers. Today, he occupies his time with writing historical fiction, chiefly based in Civil War and Pioneer era Florida, researching, beekeeping, and carving scrimshaw. His next novel is expected to be published in the fall.

1. How and when did you get  hooked on history?

—My father kept shoving his favorite historical fiction novels in front of me when I was a child.  They were good books by Richard Powell, Marjorie Rawlings, Frank Slaughter, and other authors.  I especially enjoyed stories about the struggles of the pioneers.  

2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?  

— A big part.  Besides the extensive research for my historical novels, I also do their illustrations and even further I do award-winning historical scrimshaws.  For those who might not be aware, scrimshaw is an old engraving process where I add ink to my scratchings (see photo example of a scrimshaw I did of Chief Osceola on abalone shell).

3. How does history play  a part of your professional life/career? 

—My family has always loved history, whether it be history by finding lost relics on my bee farm, or history driving by roadsigns (such as in Archer, Florida which motivated me to write my DRUMMER novel concerning Richmond’s gold coming to Archer in 1865). I love doing the requisite background historical research for my fiction books, plus writing articles for various historical magazines.

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?

—History is the glue behind our human beliefs and heritage.   Local history has unfortunately become shortchanged in our formal education process.  In 1960s Florida, for example, I saw each county controlling its own history curriculum and learning objectives.  Then thanks to the power of funding, with the worry of falling behind other nations, the state took over with its own cram-packed curricula and standards.  And now there is further pressure to have a national curriculum.  

5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?

—I like pioneer-type history that tries to give the reader an appreciation of the hardships that our trailblazers faced.  These difficulties and challenges seem oft forgotten nowadays, but can be quite inspiring.  It is my own hope that folks will enjoy my own historical works, plus get busy on their own historical efforts such as documenting their own families’ stories, doing drawings, or the like.

6.       Tell us about your first book Salvos on the Backwater and about your latest projects?

—I had joined a Jacksonville writing club, as a lark, that met one night a week after work.  The group required three pages of writing each time, else you would get the boot from the club.   After such weekly critiques, and a year’s worth of pages, I found myself in a good position to come out with my SALVOS book as a historical novel. It would won a number of first-place awards in various contests, to include the Patrick Smith Award which was presented to me at a banquet by Mr. Smith himself.

7.       Florida seldom gets much attention in Civil War History. What exactly was its significance during the war and what are some examples of stories that should be researched and told?

—Florida turned out to be the breadbasket of the Confederacy, supplying the Army of Northern Virginia with cows and other staples.  As to the state’s few soldiers from its small population, Robert E. Lee designed the Florida war strategy to allow Federal coastal raids, then for the militia to respond to such raids with hit-and-run attacks (much like the Seminoles’ hit-and-run war strategy in Florida up to the year 1858).  

Florida had tough (the best) battle-ready soldiers and cavalrymen, both mainstream and militia, and there is much lore concerning their CW exploits.  Floridians were able to defend Tallahassee and make it the only state capital east of the Mississippi River never overrun by the Federals.

Today, btw, reenactors and folks remember Florida’s two major battles annually at her Olustee and Natural Bridge State Parks, come each February and March. I am often invited to attend these festivals with my books.  The Olustee event is quite large, and I would suggest it to new folks that might want to witness living history.

7 Questions With Rick Kilby, Author of Florida's Healing Waters

 

Orlando-based writer and graphic designer Rick Kilby is the author of Florida’s Healing Waters: Gilded Age Mineral Springs, Seaside Resorts, and Health Spas (University Press of Florida, 2020), which received the silver medal for Florida nonfiction from the Florida Book Awards and the Florida Historical Society’s Stetson Kennedy Award. His first book, Finding the Fountain of Youth: Ponce de León and Florida's Magical Waters (University Press of Florida, 2013), won a Florida Book Award in the Visual Arts category. Both titles can be purchased at  https://www.rickkilby.com .

1. How and when did you get hooked on history?

I think I can trace my love of history back to when I started working at a downtown Orlando attraction called Church Street Station. I was hired in the late 80s as a graphic designer and all the design work had to have a Victorian look and feel. Having never worked in that style I had to build a new visual vocabulary. My office was in the historic train depot and they had an incredible resource library. Every day I would pore through the books and I fell in love with Victorian typography. From there my love of historic architecture developed and visiting old buildings really helped my passion for history grow.

 

2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?

I think when I start a research project I get slightly obsessed and I have to work hard to maintain balance in my life while allowing myself to be pulled by the momentum of that obsession. Since I have my own graphic design business, I have to plot out when I can do research, and as a result my wife and I often vacation in places related to my research. We’ve gone to places like Bath, England, Saratoga Springs, New York, and Hot Springs, Arkansas while I researched my book. I envy those who can do research full time, but I value the moments when I can fall down the rabbit hole, finding historical connections that call to be written about.

 

3. How does history play a part of your professional life/career?

Although I make a living as a graphic designer, I have been fortunate enough to have the Orange County Regional History Center as a client for over 20 years. In addition to designing their history magazine, Reflections from Central Florida, I act as managing editor soliciting and occasionally writing articles for the publication. My writing career is a creative exercise that allows me to indulge myself in exciting research into Florida’s rich past more than a vocation.

 

4.         Why is studying/knowing history important?

At this point in American history it is critical that we know the truth about the past so we can move forward appropriately. There are many issues today that are controversial that have roots in the past and battles are being fought, in this state in particular, as to how that history is interpreted. As historians we need to speak up.

 

5.         What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?

 At this point in my life, I am fascinated by the steamboat era in Florida. I call the period after the Civil War until the beginning of automobile travel Florida’s Golden Age of Bathing. Splendid Gilded Age hotels drew the nation’s elite to the Sunshine state in search of restoration and rejuvenation.

 I think it intrigues me so much because so many non-historians tend to think Florida didn’t exist before the mid-twentieth century. And there are few remnants left from that period, it’s almost easier to explore in vintage photography and print ephemera. I also think I really like the aesthetics of the period – the design and architecture.

 

6.        How did Florida’s Healing Waters affect Florida’s development? 

My thesis is that medical tourists and many healthy people who visited spas, (because it was what the wealthy elite did in the 19th century), were critical in the creation of Florida’s tourist economy that still exists today. Spa towns developed around springs, settlements grew around oceanside resorts where people practiced sea bathing, and hydrotherapy was practiced at sanitariums such as Florida Sanitarium, which is today the enormous Advent Heath hospital system. Florida’s waters were a resource that was commodified to help launch its economy after the Civil war.

 

7.       When it comes to Florida’s unique natural beauty, like its springs, in 2022 and the future, is it difficult to be an optimist?

Yes, it is very disheartening. Most of my talks surrounding my first book, Finding the Fountain of Youth, had an environmental message. While it was well received, the impact has been negligible, and if anything, the state has gone backwards in environmental stewardship. I deliberately focus on the historical aspects of my current book, more than the environmental message. But I often slip in a bit about planting native plants because I think that is what individuals can do to have the biggest impact on the environment that surrounds them.

7 Questions With William Culyer Hall, Florida Author

 

William Culyer Hall, a native of Lakeland Florida, is a fifth generation Floridian. His novel The Trouble With Panthers earned the Florida Book Award for Best Popular Fiction. In addition to the Kissimmee Valley Trilogy, Hall is author of the novel September’s Fawn. The father of four sons, he and his wife Cheryl live in Rockledge, Florida.

1. How and when did you get  hooked on history?

Since my people settled here before statehood, I became interested in the history of Florida at an early age.

2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?

I'm an active member of the Florida Historical Society.

3. How does history play  a part of your professional life/career?

I've written four historical fiction novels based on Pioneer and indigenous Florida history.

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?

Knowledge of the events and people of the past, I feel, give one a foundation, a sense of belonging.

5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?

Every period, beginning to now.

6.        What attracts you to stories of pioneer Florida?

I grew up around such people, and I strive to preserve their memory.

7. Please tell us about your most recent book?

"I Mean You No Harm" is the story of a Miccosuki warrior's search for purpose in a world that no longer resembles the one in his mind.

I Mean You No Harm is the third book in the Kissimmee Valley Trilogy. Each book in the series is enjoyable by itself. Together, the connected stories follow some of the same characters through a century of Florida history.

In the first book of the series, The Trouble With Panthers, the Rawlerson family has been involved in Florida’s cattle industry for several generations. In 2004, family members are divided over how they should adapt from Florida’s past to an inevitable future.

The second book in the series, Florida Boy, takes us back to the beginning of the story when the Rawlerson family establishes their homestead in Florida. The family patriarch who dies in The Trouble With Panthers is born in Florida Boy.

In this conclusion to the Kissimmee Valley Trilogy, I Mean You No Harm, we learn more about the mysterious Native American mentor of young Rawlerson family men. We follow the Indian with no name on his journey of self-discovery as he walks throughout the state, witnessing dramatic changes.

7 Questions With Scott Deitche, Author and Organized Crime Historian

Scott M. Deitche is an author who specializes in organized crime and other topics of interest. He is the author of 7 books on the mob, including Cigar City Mafia and The Silent Don: The Criminal Underworld of Santo Trafficante Jr. For more, go to https://tampamafia.com/ , and if you're in Tampa, take a walking tour with him.

1. How and when did you get  hooked on history?

My parents, especially my Mom, always loved history so I grew up enjoying it as well. I was in AP history in high school and ended up with a minor in history in college (majored in marine science, my primary career). I clearly recall some of the earliest non-fiction books I read- one was about the seven wonders of the ancient world. I remember that book distinctly and can recite passages from memory. 

I can’t find my sunglasses almost daily, but I remember a book I read in 1981.

2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?

Well, with the writing I do, part of my spare time, which fishing used to fully occupy, has been replaced by digging into old court records or FBI files. With the opening up of so many more avenues to access primary source material and law enforcement/curt records, it’s been a boon for Mafia researchers ( mobologists in our science parlance) and writers.

The other area is personal family history. My paternal grandfather was a small time bookie who was arrested in 1970 in New Jersey for bookmaking and did a short prison stint. It’s become a great family story and I actually tell it in the introduction to my book Garden State Gangland: The Rise of the Mob in New Jersey.

3. How does history play  a part of your professional life/career?

So, even though I was always generally interested in history, around 1990, after seeing Goodfellas in the movies, I really started becoming more interested in organized crime history.  I grew up in New Jersey, so the mob was always around. My mom loved old mob movies and we would get NYC TV, so obviously stories about gangsters were common fodder on the local news. I clearly remember eating dinner and seeing the breaking news that Paul Castellano had been killed, in December 1985.  But after seeing Goodfellas, I really started diving into the available Mafia books at the time. In the mid-1990s I started getting into more of the research and digging up newspaper articles, and law enforcement reports. IN 1995, back when the web was very primitive, I met a historian from England, David Critchley, on an old text website about the Mafia (long since gone). He had a copy of the Kefauver hearings from Tampa (I had relocated to the Tampa Bay area by that time). After reading those, I became really hooked and started diving into the Tampa Mafia as well as some of the other families. 

I started writing short articles for web sites like That Life (also long gone) and Rick Porello’s Americanmafia.com. And started writing my first book, Cigar City Mafia. I found an agent and sold the book in 2003. It was released in January of 2004, and my writing career began.

I also run the Tampa Mafia walking tours (www.tampamafia.com), which I have been doing for a little over 10 years now.

So another part of this is my primary career. As an environmental professional for a private engineering consulting firm, business development is a core part of my job. We have taken clients out on the walking tour (just last week in fact). And I lean into my love of history and the mob stuff many times while networking. It definitely sets a conversation apart from the usual small talk!

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?

History is the glue that holds our collective experience together, both good and bad. Certainly recent efforts against the teaching of true history, because it highlights some of the less than glamorous aspects of this country’s founding, is a testament to how important it is to preserve and teach history, especially forgotten and “uncomfortable” topics. 

Crime history, especially when dealing with a subject like the Mafia, gives surprising windows in general American 20th century history. The Mafia are intertwined with various important subjects, from the labor movement in America, to World War II and the European campaign, the founding of one of our most popular cities (Vegas baby, Vegas!) to Cold War geopolitics, to maybe even (ok, getting a bit conspiratorial here) the assassination of a President. But even taking that last one off. Mafia history is truly American history.

5.          What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?

I like the 1950s/60s era, especially in relation to Mafia-adjacent topics like pre-Castro Cuba, Las Vegas, and the Cold War. That interest seeps out in to my admiration for mid-century. Google architecture and cocktails of that era. Oh, and you can’t really be a mobologist, or mob author, without some love for the Rat Pack.

6.        Why did Tampa become a center of organized crime activity?

Tampa was a thriving port City with a significant industry- cigar making. By the early 1900s it had attracted various ethnic groups to the Ybor City area- primarily Cuban, Spanish, and Sicilian immigrants (there was a small German and Jewish population as well) Like many immigrant communities at that time, there was a certain level of intra-community crime, especially related to extortion and Black Hand activities. We see the emergence of a Mafia organization in the early 1900s in Tampa with tie to Mafia groups in New Orleans, New York, and other cities. 

Prohibition really kickstarts the underworld in Tampa, Port Tampa Bay becomes a hotbed for rumrunners, illegal immigrant smugglers, and narcotics traffickers. By then the Mafia was coalescing as a hierarchal group in Tampa.

But the first significant crime boss was not a Mafioso. He was the son of one of the most prominent families in Tampa. His name was Charlie Wall. By the 1920s, he was in charge of most of the local rackets. Eventually he loses ground to the Mafia and steps aside. But he made many enemies along the way and was found dea din his house, throat cut and head bashed in with a blackjack, in April 1955.

7.     How did organized crime shape Tampa in particular and Florida in general?

 

One of the most prominent ways it shaped the City was through political corruption. By the 1920s organized crime had already started to infiltrate the political sphere of the City, as well as corrupting law enforcement. Underworld figures were pouring money into political campaigns ranging from local offices, all the way up to gubernatorial races. This started under the reign of Charlie Wall and continued through the ascension of the Mafia. Things came to a head in 1950 when the Kefauver Commission chose Tampa as one of the sites to hold their hearings. In December 1950, Tampa citizens (called Tampans or Tampanians, though Tampenos is a term that is becoming increasingly popular of late) finally were able to see just how deeply organized crime had infiltrated City and county political offices, the police departments, and the Sheriff’s department. 

 

7 Questions With Art Levy, Author of Made in Florida

 

Art Levy is a Florida Trend associate editor. He writes the Of Counsel law column, the Florida Originals column and many of the magazine’s Icon features. A graduate of the University of Florida’s journalism college, Levy joined Florida Trend in 2005. Before that, he worked for newspapers including the Tampa Bay Times and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Over the years, his stories have won more than 20 awards. His newest book, Made in Florida, is a collection of published interviews with important Floridians, some famous and some not so famous.

1. How and when did you get hooked on history?

I grew up in Philadelphia during the 1960s and 1970s, a time when the city supported several major newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Bulletin and the Philadelphia Daily News. So, as a child, I read a couple of newspapers a day, starting with the comics and sports, but also reading the local, state and national news sections. Newspapers are a first draft of history, I think, so I was immersed in history from the time I could read.

2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?

When we study history, we learn from the experiences of others – and then we use that information to determine what sort of person we want to be and what sort of person we don’t want to be.

3. How does history play a part of your professional life/career?

I’ve been a journalist since 1984. I hope my job –  from writing thousands of newspaper and magazine stories to writing the book “Made in Florida” – has helped readers better understand their world. I’d be thrilled if many years from now a scholar uses my work to learn more about 21st Century Florida.

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?

History shows us what’s important and helps us make better decisions, not just in a global sense, but in our own lives.

5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?

I spend so much of my time on modern-day Florida, but I would love to learn more about Florida’s past. My family immigrated to Philadelphia in the early 1900s from Eastern Europe, so I’m also curious about that area and era.

6. What is “Made in Florida” and how did it come about?

After spending most of my career writing feature stories for newspapers, I joined Florida Trend, a statewide news magazine, in 2007, as an associate editor. Early on, I started traveling the state interviewing prominent Floridians for an interview feature called Icon. The 90 interviews in “Made in Florida” were originally published in Florida Trend. Since the University Press of Florida published the book in 2019, I’ve continued to interview people, even during the pandemic, and I’m up to about 130 interviews and counting. The full title of the book – “Made in Florida: Artists, Celebrities, Activists, Educators, and Other Icons in the Sunshine State” – gives you a sense of the wide diversity of people I’ve interviewed over the years.

7. What is it about Florida that makes it and its people so unique?

Florida is a big state, divided into distinct regions that could literally stand alone as separate states: South Florida, Central Florida and North Florida/Panhandle. So, when you have a state this big and this diverse, stuffed with 21.5 million people of all sorts who generally moved here from other places – then you’ve got a state that has just about everything – good, bad and in-between. Maybe, it’s Florida’s ever-expanding diversity that sets it apart from other states.

7 Questions with Jason Vuic, Author of Swamp Peddlers

 

Originally from Punta Gorda, Florida, Jason Vuic is a writer and historian from Fort Worth, Texas.  He is the author of several books, including The Swamp Peddlers: How Lot Sellers, Land Scammers, and Retirees Built Modern Florida and Transformed the American Dream (UNC Press, 2021), The Yucks! Two Years in Tampa with the Losingest Team in NFL History (Simon and Schuster, 2016) and The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History (Hill and Wang, 2010).  Jason is a graduate of Wake Forest University and holds an M.A. in history from the University of Richmond and a Ph.D. in history from Indiana University Bloomington. He has been both a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar and a Fulbright Scholar, and has appeared on such well-known programs as NPR’s Weekend Edition, Fox and Friends in the Morning, and C-SPAN’s Book TV.  His website is  www.jasonvuic.com .

 

1. How and when did you get  hooked on history?

I guess I’ve liked learning about history. I used to read a lot as a kid.  My mom was a voracious reader and a junior high librarian, so we went to our town’s library once a week religiously plus I had access to all the books in her library as well.  My favorite books were those now wildly-out-date biographies of “heroes” like Genghis Khan and William the Conqueror and Napoleon. I also read biographies of sports stars and I guess developed a knack for understanding the past, for understanding what came when and how one era led to another.  

2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?

My father enjoyed history...especially World War II documentaries.  He was a Marine during the Korean War and was just a bit too young for WWII.  He kind of idealized the world war so we had coffee table books and visited museums and admired and talked about the “Greatest Generation” in our house long before Tom Brokaw made the Greatest Generation a thing.  Also, my father’s parents were Serbian immigrants from Croatia who came through Ellis Island prior to World War I. We were and are intensely proud of that, so understanding what was what historically, traveling, and reading about the past were really big deals in my family.  My mother’s side also had stories, really interesting ones, so suffice it to say, history and learning history really mattered to us.

3. How does history play  a part of your professional life/career?

I went to a good liberal arts college in the South where virtually everyone who studied history went on to law school. That was my plan but as I entered school the war in Yugoslavia broke out. We had relatives there and had always read and tried to learn about the area and had visited in the 1980s.  My relatives in Croatia lived in the eye of storm and experienced some brutal stuff.  So my interest quickly became a passion, and I gave up trying to go to law school in favor of studying the history of Eastern Europe in hopes of teaching or maybe working over there in some way. I was hooked.

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?

For me, at least, it has always been a matter of learning who you are and where you live and how the world around you came to be. I grew up in a small town in Southwest Florida, which itself was rich in history, but where generations of transplants had little interest in Florida’s past.  Not everyone of course, but people in my part of the state had come to Florida to retiree, to recreate.  There wasn't much interest in the past and it always made me feel kinda rootless.  So history was a matter of learning who I was and where I was from.  

5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?

I’m all over the place. My Ph.D. is in Balkan and East European history and I have written two books on the subject. But I also taught world history and general European history courses as a college professor and really enjoyed that.  Lately I’ve  focused on Florida history and the history of sport.    

6.        Your most recent book is Swamp Peddlers, about the boom and bust of Florida real estate. Who were the Swamp Peddlers and how did they shape modern Florida?

As I define them, they were big land developers during the early post-World War II period who bought up cattle ranches, denuded forest land, and even swamp land to subdivide Florida into millions of residential lots, which they sold to Northerners on the installment plan, sometimes for $10 down and $10 a month.  They focused first on retirees, so we’re not talking about beachfront property here.  We’re talking about places in southern and central Florida near the coast but more often than not in the undeveloped hinterland of the state.  But, what had been hinterland quickly developed into sprawling communities like Cape Coral, Port St. Lucie, Deltona, and Port Charlotte.  I call these places the “great Florida exurbs,” those giant instant communities with no downtowns that rely on retiree income to keep the lights on but where property is cheap and there are still hundreds of thousands of residential lots.  These places to me are the future of Florida, like it or not.

7. I’ve asked this question, or a variation, of others:  Why Florida? Is there something endemic to Florida that brings out the con artist and Florida man (or woman) in its citizens? What’s your opinion?

I know one explanation as to why Florida man is so prevalent is that Florida has exceptionally open laws regarding police reports and arrest reports so journalists can read the details of arrests in the state far easier than in other states. 

But I also think Florida is in some respects rootless. People aren’t born there. People aren’t from there. Right now less than 40 percent of the state population is native born. It’s a giant mix up and mashup of peoples and cultures from all over the United States and from all over the world so there’s a lot of cultural confusion there.  

As for land sales, Florida has always been wildly pro development, insanely so.  Land developers were good, at least to the state legislature, and the laws they passed and the industry watchdogs they created tended to shield wrongdoers.