Oh, Florida!: How America's Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country

Description

A New York Times Bestseller “Painstakingly reported and
researched…compulsively readable.”―The New York Times “An extraordinary
catalog of ‘weird Florida’…the definitive guide.”―The Los Angeles Times
Florida. That name. That combination of sounds. Three simple syllables packing
mixed messages. To some people, it’s a paradise. To others, it’s a punch line.
As award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author Craig
Pittman shows, it’s both of these and, more important, it’s a Petri dish,
producing trends that end up influencing the rest of the country. Oh,
Florida!: How America’s Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country
embraces those contradictions and shows how they fit together to make this the
most interesting state. Without Florida there would be no NASCAR, no Bettie
Page pinups, no Glenn Beck radio rants, no USA Today, no “Stand Your Ground,”
. . . you get the idea. To outsiders, Florida seems baffling. It’s a state
where the voters went for Barack Obama twice, yet elected a Tea Party
candidate as governor. Florida is touted as a carefree paradise, yet it’s also
known for its perils-alligators, sinkholes, pythons, hurricanes, and sharks,
to name a few. It attracts 90 million visitors a year, some drawn by its
impressive natural beauty, others bewitched by its manmade fantasies. Florida
couldn’t be Florida without that sense of the unpredictable, unexpected, and
unusual lurking behind every palm tree. But there is far more to Florida than
its sideshow freakiness. Oh, Florida! explains how Florida secretly, subtly
influences all the other states in the Union, both for good and for ill.
Florida is wild and weird―and that’s okay! Read more

Features:

Product Details:

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Press; First Edition (July 5, 2016)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1250071208
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 00
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.19 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.34 x 1.09 x 9.44 inches
• Best Sellers Rank: #779,754 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #1,467 in Travel Writing Reference #2,650 in Travelogues & Travel Essays #6,408 in Fiction Satire
• #1,467 in Travel Writing Reference
• #2,650 in Travelogues & Travel Essays