How the New Deal Built Florida Tourism: The Civilian Conservation Corps and State Parks

by David J. Nelson

Florida Historical Society Rembert Patrick Award Florida Book Awards, Silver Medal for Florida Nonfiction Countering the conventional narrative that Florida’s tourism industry suffered during the Great Depression, this book shows that the 1930s were, in reality, the starting point for much that characterizes modern Florida’s tourism. David Nelson argues that state and federal government programs designed to reboot the economy during this decade are crucial to understanding the state today. Nelson examines the impact of three connected initiatives―the federal New Deal, its Civilian Conservation Corps program (CCC), and the CCC’s creation of the Florida Park Service. He reveals that the CCC designed state parks to reinforce the popular image of Florida as a tropical, exotic, and safe paradise. The CCC often removed native flora and fauna, introduced exotic species, and created artificial landscapes that were then presented as natural. Nelson discusses how Florida business leaders benefitted from federally funded development and the ways residents and business owners rejected or supported the commercialization and shifting cultural identity of their state. A detailed look at a unique era in which the state government sponsored the tourism industry, helped commodify natural resources, and boosted mythical ideas of the “Real Florida” that endure today, this book makes the case that the creation of the Florida Park Service is the story of modern Florida.

314 pages, Hardcover

Published May 7, 2019

About the author

David J. Nelson is Professor of History at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College-Bainbridge. His book How the New Deal Built Florida Tourism won the 2019 Rembert Patrick Book Award from the Florida Historical Society and the 2019 Florida Book Award's Silver Medal for Florida non-fiction.

He also contributed chapters to Paradise Lost? The Environmental History of Florida (2005), The Forgotten Front: Florida During the Civil War (2018), and The Governors of Florida (2020). He's been published in the Florida Historical Quarterly, the Gulf South Historical Review and the Southern Historian.

Nelson is currently working on a book on 1970s-era moral panics in Florida. He lives in Quincy, Florida, with his wife and son, two dogs and two cats.

Reviews

[EAB · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot from reading How the new Deal Built Florida Tourism. Much of past Florida political shenanigans carry over to today. Will Florida ever stop courting tourist dollars? It’s not a long book, barely over 200 pages, but has an additional 80 pages of end notes, bibliography, & index. This book is a must read for those who want to learn more about Florida history.