The Florida History Podcast

We discuss bygone roadside attractions and amusement parks in this episode. 

The fight over the building and route of the Sunshine State Parkway (now Florida's Turnpike) were a major part of Florida politics from the late 1940's to the mid 1960's. In the end everyone wanted credit for helping to build the road that contributed to Florida's transformation from sleepy backwater to mega-state - but not everyone deserved credit. We discuss it on this podcast.  

With Black Lives Matter protests and controversies about Confederate statues dominating non-COVID headlines in Summer 2020, we revisit the Reconstruction Era in Florida. 

In Episode 64 we discuss Achille Murat, Florida's connection to Napoleon Bonaparte. 

1920's Florida was a violent place racially. The state which recorded the most per capita lynchings in nation between 1901 to 1950 is especially infamous for one particularly gruesome event - the Rosewood Massacre. Neil Blackmon joins us to discuss the horrible events. 

With 2020 raging we look back at Florida's political scene in a year 2020 has been compared to - 1968. 

On this week's edition of The Florida History Podcast, we discuss Governor Leroy Collins historic work after leaving the Governorship. Collins played a critical and often under-discussed role in ensuring the Selma to Montgomery march went ahead and ran in 1968 for the US Senate - a race where his moderate racial views ran head on into racially-conservative late 1960's Florida. 

In Episode 60 we look at how three very different governors handled race relations in the state. 

We discuss the history of lynchings in Florida and the debate over racial reconciliation in the 1990's and 2000's related to lynchings and racial violence.  NOTE: we plan to have individual podcasts in the future on specific events like Rosewood, this is a general narrative. 

In Episode 58 we discuss the Condo Commandos, a group of leaders that made and broke elections in Florida for decades. 

In this special episode of The Florida History podcast, released early this week due to the civil disobedience and protesting going on nationally in the wake of George Floyd's murder, we look back at Florida's history with urban racial strife in the 1980's and 1990's. The 1980 Miami riots were the worst urban riots in the United States between the end of the Civil Rights era and the 1992 post-Rodn...

On this week's edition of The Florida History Podcast, Brook Hines joins us to discuss the development of activism and community involvement around opposing expressway building in urban areas. A national movement that began outside Florida, expressway revolts broke out across the Tampa Bay area and south Florida in the 1970's and 1980's. 

The War of 1812 has for whatever reason a certain obscurity in American History. Even more obscure is the so-called "Patriot Rebellion" and American invasion of Spanish Florida in 1812. A conflict peripherally connected to the larger war between the United States and Great Britain (including the British colonial possessions in Canada), American forces actually invaded Florida and raised the stars...

The Great Jacksonville Fire of May 3, 1901 is the third worst urban fire in American history. The city was witness to another tragic fire in December 1963 as the Roosevelt Hotel was the scene of tragedy while it played host to several famous guests in the midst of the holiday season. We discuss both fires on this edition of The Florida History Podcast.

Brook Hines joins us to discuss the evolution of the Space Coast from the time of the first space launches from Cape Canaveral in the 1950's to today. We discuss the political, residential and social evolution of the area in addition to comparing the Space Coast to the Florida Panhandle and South California in terms of its voting patterns and military influence. 

Ryan Ray joins us to discuss the epic 1950 US Senate Democratic Primary between liberal New Deal Senator Claude Pepper and moderate Cold Warrior Congressman George Smathers. Arguably the dirtiest US Senate campaign in 20th Century American History, the Smathers win ushered in the era of McCarthyism and red-baiting in campaigns across the country. 

Today we look back at a great Mayor of Miami and statewide figure, Robert King High who passed all too young at the age of 43. 

For our landmark 50th episode, in the midst of the crisis around COVID-19, we look back at major crises faced in the past by Florida Governors and how each individual coped with it. We take a look at the process of decision making and the influences on each Governor in the midst of crisis.  We will resume to our normal weekly releases, on Tuesday this coming week. Episode 51 will be released...

In Episode 49 we discuss the prohibition era in Florida in detail, particularly the rum running that took place using Florida's vast coastline. 

In Episode 48 we discuss one of the most famous and important Floridians of the 20th Century - Dan McCarty.

Few events in Florida's history had as direct an impact on the policies of the Spanish colony as the 1670 founding of Charleston, South Carolina. In this episode of the Florida History Podcast we go through the events that immediately proceeded 1670 including English Pirate Robert Searle's raid on St Augustine. 

As much of Florida continues to be locked down due to the Coronvirus pandemic we look back at a previous pandemic that killed thousands in our state. 

In this episode Dave Trotter joins us to discuss the history of toll roads in Central Florida and how they helped fuel the explosive growth of the region.

Sir Frances Drake, a famous figure in English history raided St Augustine in May 1586. The Spanish settlement was destroyed as Drake attacked Florida in the midst of the Anglo-Spanish War. Two years later Drake would be among the English commanders in the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Drake's raid had major impacts as the Spanish crown decided to consolidate it's Florida settlement at St Augustine...

In Episode 43 we look back at Florida's first populist Governor and his scheme to drain the Everglades.