Highway A1A: Florida at the Edge (Florida History and Culture

by Herbert L. Hiller

The story of Highway A1A--running north to south along 500 miles of famous Florida coastline--and its crucial role in the historic settlement and the future of a state adapting to 21st century demands. Highway Florida at the Edge is more than an insightful guide to the cities and towns along Florida’s Atlantic coast. It is also the dramatic story of how tourism begat development, how development begat sprawl, and how this coastal corridor, almost out of the blue, created Florida’s original year-round residential downtowns with the power to transform how Floridians live and how the world vacations in the Sunshine State. Highway A1A is anecdotal, authoritative, humorous, and wide-ranging. Passionately Floridian travel writer and tourism analyst Herbert Hiller offers a fuller and more balanced story about Florida’s Atlantic coast than any other guidebook. Exploring towns from Callahan to Key West, Hiller covers Florida’s 13 Atlantic counties, providing maps, historical and present-day photographs, and recommendations for places to visit, lodge, eat, and shop that are truly local in character. Whether you’re a tourist or a roving Floridian looking for some diversion not far from home, Highway A1A will put you in touch with what makes the Atlantic coast special--its dynamic sites and sights.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

456 pages, Paperback

First published October 4, 2005

Reviews

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very comprehensive and well researched book of Florida history using highway A1A to open the subject. It tells of Florida's demise as people search for paradise and greedy developers and ambitious politicians all tear it to pieces. It also tells of the few brave citizens that are a voice of sanity often too little and very often much too late. After 57 years I left that state and plan to never return.