A Quiet Revolution: The Consolidation of Jacksonville-Duval County and the Dynamics of Urban Political Reform - New Edition

by Richard Martin, Chris Hand

Jacksonville's consolidated local government finds itself at a half-century crossroads. On October 1, 1968, in the aftermath of government corruption, fiscal instability and disaccredited schools, Jacksonville merged its city and county governments into a single consolidated City of Jacksonville. That monumental step created what is today the largest city by area in the contiguous United States and the 12th largest by population. More than fifty years later, as the Jacksonville Charter Revision Commission meets to consider the future of consolidated government, our community continues to debate how consolidation has worked and how it has fallen short. The Jacksonville Historical Society commissioned this 50th Anniversary edition of A Quiet Revolution. It includes original author Richard Martin's historical accounts from the 1968 and 1993 editions and features former City of Jacksonville Chief of Staff Chris Hand's chronicle of consolidated government from 2008 to 2019 - and his discussion of the issues that might define consolidation's next 50 years.

422 pages, Paperback

Published September 15, 2019

Reviews

[Jacob Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essential reading for Jacksonvillians. My one complaint is that the edition I read (the 2008 4th edition) is very poorly edited. There is approximately one error per page throughout the entire 342 pages. Clearly they scanned the text of an earlier edition, but then didn't check for scanning errors. Oh well.

[Jordan Hamby · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I never have to see or hear the word consolidation again it would be too soon

Read for school

[Connor Oswald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid history, frankly repetitive, but definitely should be read by Jacksonville folks