The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise
Sign in to keep track of books you’ve read and want to read.
The Everglades was once reviled as a liquid wasteland, and Americans dreamed of draining it. Now it is revered as a national treasure, and Americans have launched the largest environmental project in history to try to save it. "The Swamp" is the stunning story of the destruction and possible resurrection of the Everglades, the saga of man's abuse of nature in southern Florida and his unprecedented efforts to make amends. Michael Grunwald, a prize-winning national reporter for "The Washington Post," takes readers on a riveting journey from the Ice Ages to the present, illuminating the natural, social and political history of one of America's most beguiling but least understood patches of land. The Everglades was America's last frontier, a wild country long after the West was won. Grunwald chronicles how a series of visionaries tried to drain and "reclaim" it, and how Mother Nature refused to bend to their will; in the most harrowing tale, a 1928 hurricane drowned 2,500 people in the Everglades. But the Army Corps of Engineers finally tamed the beast
Read more
with levees and canals, converting half the Everglades into sprawling suburbs and sugar plantations. And though the southern Everglades was preserved as a national park, it soon deteriorated into an ecological mess. The River of Grass stopped flowing, and 90 percent of its wading birds vanished.
Now America wants its swamp back. Grunwald shows how a new breed of visionaries transformed Everglades politics, producing the $8 billion rescue plan. That plan is already the blueprint for a new worldwide era of ecosystem restoration. And this book is a cautionary tale for that era. Through gripping narrative and dogged reporting, Grunwaldshows how the Everglades is still threatened by the same hubris, greed and well-intentioned folly that led to its decline.
Liked The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise? Here’s where I’d start.
These suit anyone who liked The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.
-
The Everglades: River of Grass Shares Florida, nonfiction, nature -
Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean Shares Florida, nonfiction, history -
Skyway: The True Story of Tampa Bay's Signature Bridge and the Man Who Brought It Down Shares Florida, nonfiction, history -
The Scent of Scandal: Greed, Betrayal, and the World's Most Beautiful Orchid Shares Florida, nonfiction, history
“People who read The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise tend to reach for these next.”
“If you want more of the same (history about nature), start with these.”
-
Dream State: Eight Generations of Swamp Lawyers, Conquistadors, Confederate Daughters, Banana Republicans, and Other Florida Wildlife
-
Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams: A Social History of Modern Florida
-
Totch: A Life in the Everglades
-
Oh, Florida!: How America's Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country
