Florida Books

Skellings is a fine inside cat. He can let language do. There are several around who can make language do, but only ones of the first water can let language do. That may be a fine distinction, but only fine distinctions count.

This is a nifty little handbook that handled nearly all the identification needed for amateur shell collecting on Cayo Costa, a barrier island on Florida's west coast. The photographs are accurate and information is easy to find.

Dr. Nancy Stockdale provides at times a chilling, but always informative, retelling of how English missionary women assisted in the British imperial project in mandate Palestine. Caught in between the dominant patriarchal middle-class at home and the perceived inferior, exotic female creatures of the Orient supposedly begging for sex emancipation and public incorporation, British missionaries exposed Palestinian girls and women to a particular brand of English Protestantism and female domesticity in order to Anglicize the region from inside the minds of these colonial subjects. Dr. Stockdale brings to the fore these missionaries' religious fantasies and bourgeois aesthetics as imperialist tools, basing her analysis on the theoretical underpinnings of Edward Said's Orientalism, as well as notable feminist studies by Leila Ahmad and Fatima Mernissi. These colonial encounters led in some cases to traumatic confrontations, both within Protestant organizations and between missionaries and their colonial subjects. Dr. Stockdale provides expansive examples from these missionaries own perspectives on the region and its people, juxtaposed with interviews from women who grew up within these imperialist structures and constructs. Special treatment is given to particular, dramatic recounting of maltreated Palestinian orphan girls and their despair. Overall, Stockdale gives a clearly composed and well thought out analysis of a dark chapter in British colonial history in the Middle East.

Mr. Feldman is the author of two previous Clearfield Company publications pertaining to pre-statehood Florida: (1) Anglo-Americans in Spanish Archives, a collection of census data on British-Americans who settled in Florida during the second period of Spanish domination (1784-1821); and (2) The Last Days of British St. Augustine, 1784-1785, the transcription of a Spanish census of the English colony of East Florida.

For this latest work, Mr. Feldman has transcribed a variety of population lists for East and West Florida, dating from 1763 to 1784, based on British sources. Mr. Feldman discovered these records among the files of England's Public Record Office that had been copied for and deposited in the Library of Congress in the 1920s. These heretofore unpublished sources consist of lists of refugees, signatories to oaths of allegiance, lists of inhabitants, council members, militia, intra-Florida migrants, and more. Each list has the virtue of placing individuals in a specific location at a particular point in time. In some cases, the schedules also give a person's marital status, number of children, race, and/or occupation. For researchers hoping to further pursue the circumstances surrounding the Anglo-Spanish military campaign of 1779-1784, the author has added an extensive bibliography of sources. In all, this original Clearfield title refers to roughly 3,000 English subjects who resided in East or West Florida before it was returned to Spain in the aftermath of the American Revolution. (For reasons of economy, since most of Mr. Feldman's lists are in alphabetical order, there is no index to the volume as a whole.)

Commodore John Rodgers: Paragon Of The Early American Navy is a solid, interpretive biography that observes Rodgers' role in history during America's Age of Sail in the early 1800s. Based upon extensive manuscript sources, particularly the copious Rodgers family papers, and numerous articles, essays, and monographs on American naval history, Commodore John Rodgers paints a vivid picture of the man who served with great distinction in the Quasi-War with France, the Barbary War, and the War of 1812; dedicated himself to building a strong navy of the absolute highest professional standards; and put his beliefs to the test. Enthusiastically recommended reading, especially for naval history buffs.

Ralph Middleton Munroe's book provides a glimpse into early life of settlers in southern Florida and Biscayne Bay.

I purchased this book for my father's 85th birthday. He will love the colorful photos and the descriptions listed by the family of the bird; pelicans, plover, gull etc. Arrived in great, new condition!

This is obviously the very first wild mushroom field guide that I recommend to everyone from the Florida or south Georgia and south Alabama area[s] that is interested in the hobby. I have a great deal of respect for James and his life long research involving wild Florida mushrooms. Truly a scholar on the subject.

This little book has been INVALUABLE to me in my walks and rambles through Florida forests.
Card cover and stapled though it is I enjoy it immensley.

"Provides information that cannot be obtained elsewhere in one source. This is info that beach guests would like to have."--Stephen P. Leatherman, (aka "Dr. Beach") author of America's Best Beaches

"Florida beachgoers will find this book helpful in discovering their ideal beach. The detailed information here will give tourists and residents alike the chance to see just how many wonderful beaches Florida has."--Holly Ambrose, author of 30 Eco-Trips in Florida

"Mary and Bill Burnham prove that Florida's beaches aren't just about soaking up rays. Revealing secret sweet spots throughout the Sunshine State, they've created the most detailed guide for beachgoers to ever hit the shelves. I'll keep it in my car for reference!"--Sandra Friend, author of Hiker's Guide to the Sunshine State

"The University Press of Florida celebrates the diversity of the state's outstanding beaches in its broad-ranging series Wild Florida with the Complete Florida Beach Guide. Written by the dynamic husband and wife team of Bill and Mary Burnham, [this] is the most definitive work of its type."
-From the foreward by Series Editor, M. Timothy O'Keefe