New Review: The Swamp

The following is a brief excerpt from a review posted on PopandPolitics.com:

You might not think that a book about the cyclical transformation of Florida swampland into livable, productive land and then back to swampland is very interesting -- but you’d be wrong. You’d also be missing out on a tale of one of America’s longest lasting, near-mythical sagas.

Like the Lewis and Clark Expedition or the California Gold Rush, the taming of Florida’s Everglades is its own fantastic story with heroes and villains, twists and turns, and tragedies and triumphs, including a rare moment when Democrats and Republicans got together to do some actual good for our country.

The dramatic story of Florida, in essence, compelled Washington Post reporter Michael Grunwald to write ,“The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise.”

We are living in an age where our greatest inventions and quality-of-life resources are quickly becoming our undoing. Grunwald takes this theme and runs with it, specifically by cataloguing the transformation of the Everglades and asking why mankind insists on rehabilitating Mother Nature before she incinerates, drowns, or blows us all back to the Stone Age.

A host of images come to mind when one thinks of the Sunshine State. Orlando’s Disney World, the happiest place on Earth; Miami’s South Beach, made famous by shows like Miami Vice and the movie Scarface; Daytona Beach’s Bike Week celebration; Ft. Lauderdale’s Spring Break parties; the Florida Keys’ snorkeling, dolphin swimming and sport fishing, made famous by the Beach Boys; Tampa’s Gasparilla pirate festival; and the Florida Panhandle’s Redneck Riviera .

With all of the ballyhoo and fun-in-the-sun advertised about this celebrated state, one rarely remembers that huge amounts of land south of Orlando used to be a swamp -- a river of grass as it were. The subtropical marshlands known as the Florida Everglades is one of a kind. The Everglades has been home to innumerable species of plants and animals. It was once the uncontested home of the Seminole Indian tribe. It was once and it remains today one of America’s greatest attempts to tame and control Mother Nature. Continued