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Bubble in the Sun: The Florida Boom of the 1920s and How It Brought on the Great Depression
Christopher Knowlton, author of Cattle Kingdom and former Fortune writer, takes an in-depth look at the spectacular Florida land boom of the 1920s and shows how it led directly to the Great Depression.The 1920s in Florida was a time of incredible excess, immense wealth, and precipitous collapse. It was the largest human migration in American history, far exceeding the settlement of the West. It spawned the suburbs as we know them and the first large-scale assault on the environment in the name of "progress." Thousands flocked to the grand hotels and new cities rose rapidly from the teeming wetlands. Nowhere was the glitz and excess of the Roaring Twenties more blatant than in Florida. It was Vegas before there was Vegas; gambling was legal and so was drinking (prohibition was not enforced). Tycoons and celebrities flocked to this new frontier. Yet, the import and deep impact of this historical moment has never been explored thoroughly until now. In Bubble in the Sun Christopher Knowlton shows us the grand artistic and entrepreneurial visions behind Coral Gables, Boca Raton, Mar-a-Lago, Miami Beach, and other storied sites. It was a time when the nightlife raged more raucously than anywhere else in America; workers, mostly black, who built and maintained the boom endured grievous abuses; and the pure beauty of the Everglades suffered wanton ruination. Knowlton also breathes dynamic life into the four forces that made and/or broke Florida in the time: the real estate moguls Carl Fisher, George Merrick, and Addison Mizner, and the once-in-a-century storm whose aftermath included the stock market crash. This essential account is a revelatory--and relevant--history of a specific time that is still affecting our country today.
1 pages, Audio CD
First published January 14, 2020
About the author
Christopher Knowlton
3 books35 followersBUBBLE IN THE SUN is the winner of the 2021 Excellence in Financial Journalism (EFJ) Best Book Award.
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January 5, 2020
3.5 stars
I'll confess to feeling more than a frisson of schadenfreude at the final fates of the foolish fellows most responsible for the spectacular crash of the Florida real estate boom in the 1920s. They all died impoverished and in poor health, victims of their own greed and extravagant living.
These men made mountains of money early in the boom, and they could have lived richly for the rest of their lives on that money. But their greed and egos and need for prestige knew no bounds. They had to keep trying to one-up each other, building more and more lavish properties, irreparably altering and despoiling Florida's nearly pristine ecosystems. They overextended themselves financially, and got what they deserved. Unfortunately, they ruined a lot of other people's lives in the process.
The bank failures and the bust of Florida's real estate market in 1926 were a preview and perhaps a precursor of what was to come for the entire nation in 1929. I knew nothing of this story, and I found this book to be a fairly comprehensive overview. I had never heard of most of the major figures, so I did have some difficulty keeping track of who was who and what were their backgrounds and eccentricities.
Those who do not learn from the mistakes of their grandcestors are likely to repeat those mistakes, and thus we had the financial crisis of 2008. I found many glaring parallels between the two debacles.
I'll confess to feeling more than a frisson of schadenfreude at the final fates of the foolish fellows most responsible for the spectacular crash of the Florida real estate boom in the 1920s. They all died impoverished and in poor health, victims of their own greed and extravagant living.
These men made mountains of money early in the boom, and they could have lived richly for the rest of their lives on that money. But their greed and egos and need for prestige knew no bounds. They had to keep trying to one-up each other, building more and more lavish properties, irreparably altering and despoiling Florida's nearly pristine ecosystems. They overextended themselves financially, and got what they deserved. Unfortunately, they ruined a lot of other people's lives in the process.
The bank failures and the bust of Florida's real estate market in 1926 were a preview and perhaps a precursor of what was to come for the entire nation in 1929. I knew nothing of this story, and I found this book to be a fairly comprehensive overview. I had never heard of most of the major figures, so I did have some difficulty keeping track of who was who and what were their backgrounds and eccentricities.
Those who do not learn from the mistakes of their grandcestors are likely to repeat those mistakes, and thus we had the financial crisis of 2008. I found many glaring parallels between the two debacles.
April 13, 2021
Bubble in the Sun: The Florida Boom of the 1920s and How It Brought on the Great Depression was an interesting and meticulously researched account of the grand visions and designs coupled with business acumen of architects and businessmen to bring development to the state of Florida from the time of the Gilded Age through the crash of 1929. Florida has long been one of our favorite destinations, and a state where we have spent a lot of time, thus the keen interest in this remarkable history of the great Florida land boom and the opening of this beautiful state.
It goes without saying that Henry Flagler, the American industrialist and partner of John D. Rockefeller in Standard Oil, was the first visionary seeing the promise of the state when he first spent time in St. Augustine and later in Palm Beach, where he built luxurious resorts followed by the development of the Florida East Coast Railway to these destinations and beyond along the Atlantic coast of Florida. Because of his determination, the Florida Overseas Railroad was extended from Biscayne Bay to Key West, a 128 miles past the end of the Florida peninsula and completed in 1912.
Christopher Knowlton tells the story of four men that were instrumental in the development of Florida in the midst of the 1920s and the sequence of events that transpired in Florida:
And one of my favorite people shaping Florida during this time was Marjory Stoneman Douglas, a journalist for The Miami Herald, a freelance writer, a staunch women's suffrage advocate and a conservationist protecting the Everglades from major development. In 1993, when she was 103 years old, President Bill Clinton awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her efforts to preserve and restore the Everglades. The author notes that "she lived to be 108 before succumbing to a gentle death, far outliving the four great developers who had been her contemporaries. Her ashes were scattered in the Everglades."
And in his conclusion, Christopher Knowlton sums it up this way:
And in the prescient words of the author:
It goes without saying that Henry Flagler, the American industrialist and partner of John D. Rockefeller in Standard Oil, was the first visionary seeing the promise of the state when he first spent time in St. Augustine and later in Palm Beach, where he built luxurious resorts followed by the development of the Florida East Coast Railway to these destinations and beyond along the Atlantic coast of Florida. Because of his determination, the Florida Overseas Railroad was extended from Biscayne Bay to Key West, a 128 miles past the end of the Florida peninsula and completed in 1912.
Christopher Knowlton tells the story of four men that were instrumental in the development of Florida in the midst of the 1920s and the sequence of events that transpired in Florida:
"The stars of this story are the handful of daring men who, eager for fame and wealth, took enormous risks to open up Florida for real estate development and then chased the boom to its ruinous conclusion. . . Chief among these are the 'uncrowned kings of real estate: Carl Fisher in Miami Beach, Addison Mizner in Palm Beach and Boca Raton, George Merrick in Coral Gables, and David Paul 'D.P.' Davis in Tampa and St. Augustine."
And one of my favorite people shaping Florida during this time was Marjory Stoneman Douglas, a journalist for The Miami Herald, a freelance writer, a staunch women's suffrage advocate and a conservationist protecting the Everglades from major development. In 1993, when she was 103 years old, President Bill Clinton awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her efforts to preserve and restore the Everglades. The author notes that "she lived to be 108 before succumbing to a gentle death, far outliving the four great developers who had been her contemporaries. Her ashes were scattered in the Everglades."
And in his conclusion, Christopher Knowlton sums it up this way:
"The great Florida land boom left several important legacies; chief among these were the vibrant cities, most notably Palm Beach, Miami and Miami Beach, which would rebound in the decades to follow and emerge as proper metropolises."
And in the prescient words of the author:
"I believe the collapse of the Florida land boom pricked the national real estate bubble of the twenties, causing the initial contraction in the economy to begin. This explanation accommodates both classical monetarist thinking and competing Keynesian explanations for what happened. . . . However, the role played by the collapse of Florida's real estate boom in launching the Great Depression has surely been vastly underappreciated by economists and historians."
October 2, 2020
Bubble in the Sun is a work of non-fiction which details the Florida land boom that took place about 100 years ago. It’s an age old story of rich men behaving badly. Something that doesn’t surprise us today. Greed, status, wealth, power. Florida has seen it all. This is the story of the real estate moguls Carl Fisher, George Merrick and Addison Mizner. While they helped to create South Florida, their ambition ultimately led to their ruin. Not one of the men profiled survived the boom with his fortune or health intact.
I found this book absolutely fascinating. The era was post World War I and people were looking to invest. People had money and many had cars. Buying land in Florida became a sure-fire way of getting wealthy. Credit was easy to get. Prices continued to rise. The developers were getting very rich and living lavish lifestyles. These men didn’t just create developments, they were creating new towns such as Coral Gables. “Binder boys” helped serve as selling agents. But then came the bust. Land prices rose too high. People became sellers, no longer buyers. The Hurricane of 1928 and news that South Florida was essentially wiped out destroyed any lingering desire for people to invest in land. The Great Depression soon followed.
While the developer kings were ruined, their legacies remain. They helped to create now vibrant cities, which would end up growing and becoming successful in the decades to come. Architect Addison Mizner’s influence in Palm Beach and Boca Raton are still very visible. This is where I live and his style continues to define much of the area.
A hero in this tale of excess is Marjory Stoneman Douglas and the other environmentalists who stopped ill conceived developments in the Everglades and elsewhere. Stoneman Douglas was a true pioneer. At age 103 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She lived to age 108.
If you live in or enjoy visiting South Florida, you might find Bubble In the Sun as engaging as I did.
Review posted on MicheleReader.com.
I found this book absolutely fascinating. The era was post World War I and people were looking to invest. People had money and many had cars. Buying land in Florida became a sure-fire way of getting wealthy. Credit was easy to get. Prices continued to rise. The developers were getting very rich and living lavish lifestyles. These men didn’t just create developments, they were creating new towns such as Coral Gables. “Binder boys” helped serve as selling agents. But then came the bust. Land prices rose too high. People became sellers, no longer buyers. The Hurricane of 1928 and news that South Florida was essentially wiped out destroyed any lingering desire for people to invest in land. The Great Depression soon followed.
While the developer kings were ruined, their legacies remain. They helped to create now vibrant cities, which would end up growing and becoming successful in the decades to come. Architect Addison Mizner’s influence in Palm Beach and Boca Raton are still very visible. This is where I live and his style continues to define much of the area.
A hero in this tale of excess is Marjory Stoneman Douglas and the other environmentalists who stopped ill conceived developments in the Everglades and elsewhere. Stoneman Douglas was a true pioneer. At age 103 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She lived to age 108.
If you live in or enjoy visiting South Florida, you might find Bubble In the Sun as engaging as I did.
Review posted on MicheleReader.com.
August 27, 2025
I thought this was a nice hook for a book. It kind of fits that niche of history stories that don’t normally get told.
The book mostly focuses on the three principal movers and shakers who built Florida into the resort state it would come, primarily the cities of Miami, Boca Raton and Coral Gables.
There are a number of related characters and cities as well like the writer/environmentalist Marjorie Stoneman Douglas and analysis of the era’s architecture.
It’s an intersection of some interesting aspects of our culture. The widespread use of the automobile sent people to explore this untapped frontier. Ambitious men envisioned a tropical paradise, combined with a wild anything goes “Vegas” style lawlessness that attracted people like Al Capone and was counter to the era’s Prohibition. Speaking of lawlessness, Charles Ponzi is here too (literally) jumping out on bail trying to sell swampland to potential buyers until his mouth got him caught.
Such is the spirit of the times that land speculation drives prices to ridiculous extremes. With demand high, people ending up the proverbial uninhabitable “Florida swampland”. The propaganda of the developers promising Shangri La.
With the benefit of hindsight it’s clear to see that even in ideal conditions, it would take decades to build the necessary infrastructure. Hearing the stories of some of the “man vs nature” challenges were quite entertaining
It’s not surprising that these men lived like aristocracy, but it is kind of surprising that not one of the major players cashed out while they were ahead, and chased riches that vanished.
It probably speaks to humankind that we fall for “sight unseen” scams. We know that eventually Florida would be come the destination that these men envisioned but it took decades. In the meantime, even with well meaning intentions, the developers did damage to the environment.
Eventually, the propaganda wasn’t enough to keep the momentum and skeptics started to pick away at the advertisements. Things would have cooled off but any hope of a good outcome was lost to the 1926 Great Miami Hurricane. The negative publicity of 1925 was the warning; the 1926 physical destruction was the death knell.
Knowlton wants to make the statement that this was more related to the cause of the depression than the 1929 Stock Market crash. He may be on to something, pointing out the similarities with the subprime lending crisis, housing bubble and the 2008 Great Recession. The wealth inequity and bad monetary policy like the Smoot-Hawley tariff act of 1930 also contributed but banks making loans they shouldn’t have contributed to the outcome
It’s an interesting book. Knowlton uses the character biographies to drive the story. It may drag for some readers at points but the interesting content really worked for me. It was certainly in my wheelhouse.
July 31, 2020
At the turn of the century, Florida was nothing but swampland. It was considered a frontier state with a sparse population. Then came the tycoons, among them Flagler and Rockefeller with their money and ventures and followed by droves and droves of people. The author documents the development of hotels and golf courses by rich men for rich people. It is an interesting story of how Florida became such a densely populated state. I always thought well of Mr. Flagler as so many buildings, roads, plazas and parks are named after him in my home state of Florida. It was disappointing to learn that like most tycoons of the time, he was not such a great guy.
October 6, 2019
It all started with Standard Oil money. Henry Flagler, Rockefeller’s partner (who John D. called the brains of the Standard Oil Trust) retired from the company and discovered the new frontier – Florida. Like a Jeff Bezos pushing into outer space, Flagler spent what today would be billions developing land in Florida and building a railway to and through it. This opened the state to freight and passengers, and the madness of the bubble began. Where mere mortals saw swamps, clouds of mosquitos and impenetrable jungles, Flagler saw a potential wonderland.
In Christopher Knowlton’s excellent Bubble in the Sun, the young billionaires of the era flocked to the state, making it a high end, luxury destination for them and their kind. The book examines the excesses they went to, and how they built new fortunes selling their dreams (and their partying) to the rest of the country.
Over the (Roaring) 1920s, they would buy up raw land, subdivide it and put it on the market. Like bees to honey, people literally threw money at brokers to own their own piece. Knowlton relates how new records were set every time a development came to market, with millions committed on the first day of sales alone. At one point, he says, people were literally throwing checks at brokers, which had to be collected in a barrel because they couldn’t fill out the contracts fast enough. By the height of it all, there developed a shortage of police, because so many quit to become real estate agents.
The book thoroughly profiles the highflyers of the bubble, in all their anachronistic and anarchistic character. William Jennings Bryan, who got dragged into it as a shill, admitted “Coral Gables is the only city in the world where you can tell a lie at breakfast that will come true by evening.”
My own favorites are the Mizner brothers, the architect and the grifter, who rose to national fame on the back of the bubble. I treasure my first edition of Alva Johnston’s profile of them (The Legendary Mizners, 1952), and Knowlton gives him credit as he digs into the lives of all these hustlers from across the country and a couple from Europe too. They made billions in a short time, then lost it all and more even faster.
One was a bicycle racer who made his first fortune repairing bicycles in Indianapolis. Bikes had recently replaced the unworkable penny-farthings and become all the rage. He turned out to be quite the showman. After building the Indianapolis 500 Speedway, he took on Florida, where among other things, he developed cheesecake – the photos of young women in bathing suits that made the rest of the country wonder what they were missing. Like all of them, the bubble’s instability escaped him, and he died essentially penniless. Another megastar ended as a failing real estate agent, another became a beggar, and at least one committed suicide. Several blew their massive inheritances trying to make their own fortunes. These were people who until recently had fleets of buses and limousines circulating all over the southeast, bringing prospects to see for themselves. One employed an elephant as a golf caddy. They built world class marketing organizations so their projects were always in the newspapers all over the country. Prohibition was openly laughed off. Parties were everything.
The signs of a bubble were there, but everyone carried on regardless. Then a series of hurricanes wiped out almost everything they had built, and scared off new prospects. Even Flagler’s railway to the Florida Keys was torn to shreds, and no one raised their hand to restore it. Land prices plunged, banks closed, lending ceased, investors vaporized. The stock market crash of 1929 was the final nail, plunging the whole country into a depression the likes of which had never been seen in America. Nobody wanted to buy anything in that atmosphere. Nobody gave Florida another thought.
A new generation of billionaires scooped up the remains at bargain prices and the cycle has of course repeated. Today, it’s rising seas and more violent hurricanes that are the primary threats, but that has stopped nothing in the way of land development. As long as prices are rising, everyone is happy to dive right in.
There are three things that make Bubble in the Sun outstanding, besides the characters, who wrote themselves for Knowlton. He is careful to put things in perspective, because we take so much for granted. He explains the rolling daisy-chain effects of the depression so readers can see how it deepened and took Florida down. He explains the monetary policy of the era, banking policy as it was then, and always tells readers what a dollar amount would mean in today’s money. All this keeps the book from being just a flat history that today’s readers could not relate to. This adds tremendous value.
Knowlton also seems to have tapped everyone in the world for their takes on the players and the era. He assembled everyone’s contributions into an easy-reading, engaging and often exciting tale that is seamless where it could easily have been disjointed. A tremendous amount of work went into Bubble in the Sun, and it wears well.
Finally, he is very clear on the racism of the builders. Communities had in their very contacts that no one could sell to a non-white. Blacks could work in construction or service (after protests by a megarich doyenne to the state about her need for servants), but lived in shantytowns far away. That this was normal for the times is no excuse. These innovative builders missed a huge opportunity to make a real difference. But the difference they were after was who died with the most toys.
I was particularly taken with Knowlton’s emphasis on Marjory Stoneman Douglas, born and raised in the Miami area – the only one. She started out in journalism because her father ran the paper, but developed into a national storyteller for the Saturday Evening Post. She lived alone, appreciating more and more the nature she grew up with as the developers made it disappear. She became a rabid environmentalist, attempting to stanch the destruction of the Everglades, the main source of freshwater in the state. As Frank Barbour said in 1944: “It was an easy state for man to ruin and he ruined it with ruthless efficiency.” She outlived all of the other characters, getting a Congressional Medal of Honor from the president at the age of 103. She was a product of the bubble, one that turned out far better because of it, and far better than all the celebrity developers combined. Knowlton acknowledges her outsized contribution to there being more to life than making billions destroying a state.
David Wineberg
In Christopher Knowlton’s excellent Bubble in the Sun, the young billionaires of the era flocked to the state, making it a high end, luxury destination for them and their kind. The book examines the excesses they went to, and how they built new fortunes selling their dreams (and their partying) to the rest of the country.
Over the (Roaring) 1920s, they would buy up raw land, subdivide it and put it on the market. Like bees to honey, people literally threw money at brokers to own their own piece. Knowlton relates how new records were set every time a development came to market, with millions committed on the first day of sales alone. At one point, he says, people were literally throwing checks at brokers, which had to be collected in a barrel because they couldn’t fill out the contracts fast enough. By the height of it all, there developed a shortage of police, because so many quit to become real estate agents.
The book thoroughly profiles the highflyers of the bubble, in all their anachronistic and anarchistic character. William Jennings Bryan, who got dragged into it as a shill, admitted “Coral Gables is the only city in the world where you can tell a lie at breakfast that will come true by evening.”
My own favorites are the Mizner brothers, the architect and the grifter, who rose to national fame on the back of the bubble. I treasure my first edition of Alva Johnston’s profile of them (The Legendary Mizners, 1952), and Knowlton gives him credit as he digs into the lives of all these hustlers from across the country and a couple from Europe too. They made billions in a short time, then lost it all and more even faster.
One was a bicycle racer who made his first fortune repairing bicycles in Indianapolis. Bikes had recently replaced the unworkable penny-farthings and become all the rage. He turned out to be quite the showman. After building the Indianapolis 500 Speedway, he took on Florida, where among other things, he developed cheesecake – the photos of young women in bathing suits that made the rest of the country wonder what they were missing. Like all of them, the bubble’s instability escaped him, and he died essentially penniless. Another megastar ended as a failing real estate agent, another became a beggar, and at least one committed suicide. Several blew their massive inheritances trying to make their own fortunes. These were people who until recently had fleets of buses and limousines circulating all over the southeast, bringing prospects to see for themselves. One employed an elephant as a golf caddy. They built world class marketing organizations so their projects were always in the newspapers all over the country. Prohibition was openly laughed off. Parties were everything.
The signs of a bubble were there, but everyone carried on regardless. Then a series of hurricanes wiped out almost everything they had built, and scared off new prospects. Even Flagler’s railway to the Florida Keys was torn to shreds, and no one raised their hand to restore it. Land prices plunged, banks closed, lending ceased, investors vaporized. The stock market crash of 1929 was the final nail, plunging the whole country into a depression the likes of which had never been seen in America. Nobody wanted to buy anything in that atmosphere. Nobody gave Florida another thought.
A new generation of billionaires scooped up the remains at bargain prices and the cycle has of course repeated. Today, it’s rising seas and more violent hurricanes that are the primary threats, but that has stopped nothing in the way of land development. As long as prices are rising, everyone is happy to dive right in.
There are three things that make Bubble in the Sun outstanding, besides the characters, who wrote themselves for Knowlton. He is careful to put things in perspective, because we take so much for granted. He explains the rolling daisy-chain effects of the depression so readers can see how it deepened and took Florida down. He explains the monetary policy of the era, banking policy as it was then, and always tells readers what a dollar amount would mean in today’s money. All this keeps the book from being just a flat history that today’s readers could not relate to. This adds tremendous value.
Knowlton also seems to have tapped everyone in the world for their takes on the players and the era. He assembled everyone’s contributions into an easy-reading, engaging and often exciting tale that is seamless where it could easily have been disjointed. A tremendous amount of work went into Bubble in the Sun, and it wears well.
Finally, he is very clear on the racism of the builders. Communities had in their very contacts that no one could sell to a non-white. Blacks could work in construction or service (after protests by a megarich doyenne to the state about her need for servants), but lived in shantytowns far away. That this was normal for the times is no excuse. These innovative builders missed a huge opportunity to make a real difference. But the difference they were after was who died with the most toys.
I was particularly taken with Knowlton’s emphasis on Marjory Stoneman Douglas, born and raised in the Miami area – the only one. She started out in journalism because her father ran the paper, but developed into a national storyteller for the Saturday Evening Post. She lived alone, appreciating more and more the nature she grew up with as the developers made it disappear. She became a rabid environmentalist, attempting to stanch the destruction of the Everglades, the main source of freshwater in the state. As Frank Barbour said in 1944: “It was an easy state for man to ruin and he ruined it with ruthless efficiency.” She outlived all of the other characters, getting a Congressional Medal of Honor from the president at the age of 103. She was a product of the bubble, one that turned out far better because of it, and far better than all the celebrity developers combined. Knowlton acknowledges her outsized contribution to there being more to life than making billions destroying a state.
David Wineberg
Read
February 28, 2021Read 61 % but couldn't for the life of me concentrate on what I've read. Don't know if it was my mood or if the writing just wasn't for me.
Read
January 20, 2020I've done a bestseller on the tech stock bubble, so the dynamic of this bubble, especially the irrational psychology behind it (FOMO) was very familiar.
The book really has no story arc. It's largely episodic, full of a lot of detail, which makes for a choppy read. But I think the formula was clear. The tycoons were selling average people something that was too good to be true. They were told there was a chance you could "flip" the "land" you bought to someone else and pocket the gain. Too much of it, however, was notorious swampland.
So what brought this mania to an end?
“Very simple,” noted St. Petersburg developer Walter P. Fuller. “We just ran out of suckers.”
The 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane and the Wall Street Crash of 1929, along with the devastating arrival of the Mediterranean fruit fly, would crush Florida's prospects. It would not get a fresh start until after WW II.
The book really has no story arc. It's largely episodic, full of a lot of detail, which makes for a choppy read. But I think the formula was clear. The tycoons were selling average people something that was too good to be true. They were told there was a chance you could "flip" the "land" you bought to someone else and pocket the gain. Too much of it, however, was notorious swampland.
So what brought this mania to an end?
“Very simple,” noted St. Petersburg developer Walter P. Fuller. “We just ran out of suckers.”
The 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane and the Wall Street Crash of 1929, along with the devastating arrival of the Mediterranean fruit fly, would crush Florida's prospects. It would not get a fresh start until after WW II.
March 6, 2026
I am so glad I came across this book! I had to read a book set in the southeast, and this was the suggestion I went with. This was fascinating! I loved learning about the Florida land boom. It was sad hearing of the destruction of wildlife, and the racism, and some other things, but still so neat and I thoroughly enjoyed the history! And then the hurricanes that came! I liked how everyone introduced in the story, had their story completed and the book did make solid points to back up the title.
March 8, 2026
Great book if you are interested in Florida, however, halfway through this I realized I don’t actually have much of an interest in Florida.
June 18, 2026
loved this. interesting, fun, detailed
May 13, 2024
A friend told me about this book and I asked if it had footnotes. I was told that it did so I bought it. Initially, I was impressed with Knowlton's writing ability. Until I came to this on page 18:
“According to local legend, a backwoods widow named Julia Tuttle actively lobbied him at this time to extend his railroad down to her coastal village, once the site of a Seminole Indian trading post.”
That is so far from the truth that I was inclined to toss the book in the trash. But I kept on reading and managed to get to page 33, where I read this about George E. Merrick:
"The visit to Forest Hills Gardens gave George an idea for how to transform his family's grapefruit plantation into a more profitable enterprise. ... he envisioned converting the property into a humane small city..."
I gave up and tossed the book in the trash. It isn't worth the paper it is printed on. I wouldn't give it away - it is that bad. I'm a historian who writes articles about the history of South Dade. This book is a collection of fairy tales that is not believable by anyone with a modicum of knowledge about the history of South Florida.
I very much dislike writing negative reviews. I am tolerant of a few errors in books - those errors provide inspiration for later scholars to investigate. But this book was one giant error from page 1 until I quit at page 33. I saw no point in proceeding further because I had lost all respect for the author. He has zero credibility in my opinion.
There is a much better treatment of the 1926 crash: Panic In Paradise: Florida's Banking Crash of 1926, by Raymond B. Vickers, published in 1994. Vickers covers Addison Mizner very well and I would suggest that Mr. Knowlton read Vickers' book.
“According to local legend, a backwoods widow named Julia Tuttle actively lobbied him at this time to extend his railroad down to her coastal village, once the site of a Seminole Indian trading post.”
That is so far from the truth that I was inclined to toss the book in the trash. But I kept on reading and managed to get to page 33, where I read this about George E. Merrick:
"The visit to Forest Hills Gardens gave George an idea for how to transform his family's grapefruit plantation into a more profitable enterprise. ... he envisioned converting the property into a humane small city..."
I gave up and tossed the book in the trash. It isn't worth the paper it is printed on. I wouldn't give it away - it is that bad. I'm a historian who writes articles about the history of South Dade. This book is a collection of fairy tales that is not believable by anyone with a modicum of knowledge about the history of South Florida.
I very much dislike writing negative reviews. I am tolerant of a few errors in books - those errors provide inspiration for later scholars to investigate. But this book was one giant error from page 1 until I quit at page 33. I saw no point in proceeding further because I had lost all respect for the author. He has zero credibility in my opinion.
There is a much better treatment of the 1926 crash: Panic In Paradise: Florida's Banking Crash of 1926, by Raymond B. Vickers, published in 1994. Vickers covers Addison Mizner very well and I would suggest that Mr. Knowlton read Vickers' book.
January 25, 2021
Very informative book full of personality telling a little-known chapter of American history. Knowlton does a great job introducing and connecting the various players across the decades of Florida's real estate boom. This book gave me a whole new understanding of the development of Florida and the effect real estate speculation has on the overall economy.
August 12, 2026
3.5 rounded up to four stars. This somewhat dry non-fiction book takes the reader to Florida in the 1920s. By then, Flagler had started the Florida dream with his railroad and buildings. New builders and investors, such as Merrick and Fisher, began planning and building huge homes and massive hotels. Land speculation went crazy. But it wasn’t to last, and even the rich men fell hard. The hardcover version of the book has some awesome black-and-white photos of the main players and their real estate. Overall an interesting book, but you have to also get through a lot of dry financial details. A beautiful cover printed on a heavier paper is what first attracted me to the book when I saw it in the store.
October 21, 2020
I got into this one for two reasons. First, as a long time Floridian who spends a lot of time in the areas covered (much of the state, actually) I wanted to get into the discussion of the people who shaped our culture (?) and history. Second, the book makes the claim that the Florida land boom and bust was a huge contributor to the collapse of the economy in the nineteen twenties and actually makes a pretty good case for that. Well written, notated and sourced and worthy of interest for any Floridian - go ahead, pick out a spot on the beach, grab a drink, plop your carcass down and settle in for a worthy read.
Also, talk about a great life lesson - "...not one of Florida's four real estate kings survived the boom with either his fortune or his health intact. One drank himself to death, one ate himself to death, one worked himself to death, and one most probably committed suicide on a desperate, drunken dare". Fascinating stuff, but their names live on in the names of structures and locations through out the state.
Also, talk about a great life lesson - "...not one of Florida's four real estate kings survived the boom with either his fortune or his health intact. One drank himself to death, one ate himself to death, one worked himself to death, and one most probably committed suicide on a desperate, drunken dare". Fascinating stuff, but their names live on in the names of structures and locations through out the state.
September 26, 2023
this book begins with "florida did the great depression" and you're like oh shit I'm hooked and then 85% of it is "and that's when jimmy cornhole bought his THIRD MONKEY and banged his THIRTIETH PROSTITUTE in front of his wife all thanks to the crazy ballyhoo of that time" and you think "hey what about this great depression thing" and the last 5% explains how god punished jimmy cornhole and he died broke. I don't know man maybe this is the story the author was hoping to tell but all the interior design felt overdeveloped and the grand economic history that was promised felt severely underdeveloped — the bits about marjory were fantastic though
you also get these one-liners that make you put the book down in secondhand embarrassment for the author: "just like carl fischer couldn't see things because of his real life astigmatism he also couldn't see the housing bubble do you get it because he had vision problems and had to wear big ol glasses and it's kind of like
you also get these one-liners that make you put the book down in secondhand embarrassment for the author: "just like carl fischer couldn't see things because of his real life astigmatism he also couldn't see the housing bubble do you get it because he had vision problems and had to wear big ol glasses and it's kind of like
September 21, 2026
I am not certain that the author convinced me that the Florida Boom brought on the Great Depression, but I can certainly see that it was a contributing factor. I learned a lot about Florida, and some of those early players, and this one will make for a good discussion in the nonfiction book group that chose this for our book of the month. As you will see if you read my notes below, I had a couple of disagreements with the author, and that made me question some of his research. I am grumpy that way.
“Did any of these people know what they were doing – could any of them see even an inch beyond their own affairs, or realize what hopelessly inconspicuous, enormously unimportant atoms they were in that great surging sea that was modern America?” -T.H. Weigall (front page)
“Mosquitos, poisonous brown recluse and black widow spiders, ten-foot-long American alligators, and a variety of venomous snakes were ever-present dangers.” WRONG! There are not, nor ever have been, any populations of brown recluse spiders in Florida. There are a number of studies that back up that fact. Also, a spider is not poisonous. Like the snakes, spiders are venomous. UGH! (Page 15)
“I don’t know of anyone who has been successful, but that he has been compelled to pay some price for success. Some get it at the loss of their health, others forego the pleasures of home and spend their years in the forest or mines; some acquire success at the loss of their character, and so it goes. Many prices are paid.” -Henry Flagler (Page 22)
“In the twenties, installment credit would launch a vast consumer consumption boom. It fueled purchases of mechanical refrigerators, which were a huge technological leap forward from the icebox, as well as dishwashers, electric washing machines, kitchen ranges, stoves, pop-up toasters, oil burners, and automatic furnaces, roofing, insulation, vacuum cleaners, and radios, most of which emerged as viable new technologies in the 1920s.” (I had to note this one with another question mark. I was born in 1965, and I remember washing clothes with my grandma using a wringer washer, and I was in middle school before we got our first dishwasher. My family’s experience does not “wring” true to this statement…I could not resist the pun.) (Page 83)
“Florida would be the last state in the union to ratify the suffrage amendment to the Constitution.” (Page 93) (I began my life in the first state to give women the vote; look how far I’ve fallen!)
“There are two sound arguments against politics. The first is that they keep so many men running who were obviously built to walk, and the second is that they are politics.” -Marjory Stoneman Douglas (Page 93)
“David Fairchild, a former US Department of Agriculture bureaucrat who had created the agency’s Office of Seed and Plant Introduction was an advocate of gathering the world’s cultivars and dispersing them to new regions of the earth to spur the growth of agricultural industries…Along with more than two hundred thousand new plants and crops introduced to the United States, it was Fairchild’s idea to plant the Yoshino cherry trees along Washington, DC’s Speedway and Tidal Basin.” (Page 95)
Marjory Stoneman Douglas kept all her further relations with men platonic. She thought sex a good thing and a healthy thing, and she admitted to having enjoyed it during her marriage, but that time in her life was over. Decades later, she would write, “So I haven’t had any sex since before 1915, and I’ve done very well without it, thank you. It hasn’t been any great loss. People don’t seem to realize that the energy that goes into sex, all the emotion that surrounds it, can be well deployed in other ways.” (Page 96)
“My advice is to urge every discontented man to take a trip through the Everglades. A day’s journey in slimy, decaying vegetable matter which coats and permeates everything it touches, and no water with which to wash it off, will be good for him…It is enough to make a man swear to be content ever afterward with a board for a bed and a clean shirt once a week.” -Alonzo Church (Page 100)
“Marjory Stoneman Douglas did not see herself as a nature writer. Her theme, as she saw it, was to capture people in relation to nature and nature in relation to people.” (Page 155)
“Part of the trauma these men suffered – the deeply personal nature of it – surely had something to do with the propensity we have to form strong connections and attachments to the land or the house we own, in a way we don’t with our other assets. Consequently, the loss of a beloved piece of property – or even a business, if the owner has built it – inflicts more than a mere financial blow; it imparts a deep and searing psychological wound and a loss of identity. Anyone who has surrendered a treasured family home knows this feeling all too well. It is surely one aspect of what makes the bursting of a property bubble and its aftermath so emotionally devastating to those caught in its maelstrom.” (Page 289)
“The reckless growth calls to mind a recent remark by the naturalist David Attenborough, ‘We have a finite environment – the planet. Anyone who thinks that you can have infinite growth in a finite environment is either a madman or an economist.’” (Page 290)
“As Roger Babson once observed, ‘The evils of an economic depression cannot be cured during such a depression. The evils of a future depression can, however, be prevented or reduced by taking proper precautions during the preceding era of prosperity.’” (Page 296)
“Did any of these people know what they were doing – could any of them see even an inch beyond their own affairs, or realize what hopelessly inconspicuous, enormously unimportant atoms they were in that great surging sea that was modern America?” -T.H. Weigall (front page)
“Mosquitos, poisonous brown recluse and black widow spiders, ten-foot-long American alligators, and a variety of venomous snakes were ever-present dangers.” WRONG! There are not, nor ever have been, any populations of brown recluse spiders in Florida. There are a number of studies that back up that fact. Also, a spider is not poisonous. Like the snakes, spiders are venomous. UGH! (Page 15)
“I don’t know of anyone who has been successful, but that he has been compelled to pay some price for success. Some get it at the loss of their health, others forego the pleasures of home and spend their years in the forest or mines; some acquire success at the loss of their character, and so it goes. Many prices are paid.” -Henry Flagler (Page 22)
“In the twenties, installment credit would launch a vast consumer consumption boom. It fueled purchases of mechanical refrigerators, which were a huge technological leap forward from the icebox, as well as dishwashers, electric washing machines, kitchen ranges, stoves, pop-up toasters, oil burners, and automatic furnaces, roofing, insulation, vacuum cleaners, and radios, most of which emerged as viable new technologies in the 1920s.” (I had to note this one with another question mark. I was born in 1965, and I remember washing clothes with my grandma using a wringer washer, and I was in middle school before we got our first dishwasher. My family’s experience does not “wring” true to this statement…I could not resist the pun.) (Page 83)
“Florida would be the last state in the union to ratify the suffrage amendment to the Constitution.” (Page 93) (I began my life in the first state to give women the vote; look how far I’ve fallen!)
“There are two sound arguments against politics. The first is that they keep so many men running who were obviously built to walk, and the second is that they are politics.” -Marjory Stoneman Douglas (Page 93)
“David Fairchild, a former US Department of Agriculture bureaucrat who had created the agency’s Office of Seed and Plant Introduction was an advocate of gathering the world’s cultivars and dispersing them to new regions of the earth to spur the growth of agricultural industries…Along with more than two hundred thousand new plants and crops introduced to the United States, it was Fairchild’s idea to plant the Yoshino cherry trees along Washington, DC’s Speedway and Tidal Basin.” (Page 95)
Marjory Stoneman Douglas kept all her further relations with men platonic. She thought sex a good thing and a healthy thing, and she admitted to having enjoyed it during her marriage, but that time in her life was over. Decades later, she would write, “So I haven’t had any sex since before 1915, and I’ve done very well without it, thank you. It hasn’t been any great loss. People don’t seem to realize that the energy that goes into sex, all the emotion that surrounds it, can be well deployed in other ways.” (Page 96)
“My advice is to urge every discontented man to take a trip through the Everglades. A day’s journey in slimy, decaying vegetable matter which coats and permeates everything it touches, and no water with which to wash it off, will be good for him…It is enough to make a man swear to be content ever afterward with a board for a bed and a clean shirt once a week.” -Alonzo Church (Page 100)
“Marjory Stoneman Douglas did not see herself as a nature writer. Her theme, as she saw it, was to capture people in relation to nature and nature in relation to people.” (Page 155)
“Part of the trauma these men suffered – the deeply personal nature of it – surely had something to do with the propensity we have to form strong connections and attachments to the land or the house we own, in a way we don’t with our other assets. Consequently, the loss of a beloved piece of property – or even a business, if the owner has built it – inflicts more than a mere financial blow; it imparts a deep and searing psychological wound and a loss of identity. Anyone who has surrendered a treasured family home knows this feeling all too well. It is surely one aspect of what makes the bursting of a property bubble and its aftermath so emotionally devastating to those caught in its maelstrom.” (Page 289)
“The reckless growth calls to mind a recent remark by the naturalist David Attenborough, ‘We have a finite environment – the planet. Anyone who thinks that you can have infinite growth in a finite environment is either a madman or an economist.’” (Page 290)
“As Roger Babson once observed, ‘The evils of an economic depression cannot be cured during such a depression. The evils of a future depression can, however, be prevented or reduced by taking proper precautions during the preceding era of prosperity.’” (Page 296)
January 6, 2020
Thank you to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for an advance of this title in exchange for my honest review. Bubble in the Sun, by author Christopher Knowlton , was like reading about the Gold Rush, of the West, but rather the land rush of the state of Florida. From early discovery of Florida's beaches, to the purchasing of land, through the industrialization of the state, to development, and marketing, Knowlton creates a picture of wealth and glamorous living. We learn of the railroad expansion and the hotel industry. The billions of dollars dumped into the creation of this, America's new playland, were astronomical, by the standards of then and now. Developers and investors were not interested in keeping up with one and other. Bigger, better, newer, more luxurious and more outrageous were the expectations.
The book goes on to follow the dreams of the movers and shakers of the prospect. The many interesting stories and people were shared in great wonderment and detail. Everyone wanted a piece of this action and there was no shortage of buyers. The prohibition was in full swing, but in Florida, the excesses of alcohol and luxury partying were welcome. People could not get enough or fast enough. At one point in the book it states "4000 people were entering Florida daily by car, an additional 3,000 by train, and hundreds more by ship". The author tells us this is a conservative estimation and does not include vacationers, snowbirds, retirees, etc. Populations soared, realty was booming, and the money flowed.
Finally, as all good things must come to an end, it was the natural disasters of Florida hurricanes that burst it's economic bubble and broke the state of financial strength. This not only devastated investors and developers, but shut down banks and sent people fleeing the state. All those involved were left destitute and broke. They lost, and they lost big, most never again to regain their fortunes and inheritances. Coinciding with Stock Market Crash of 1929, the Florida Sun Bubble became nothing but a poor investment example in greed and excessive overspending.
Very interesting read. Certainly a topic in which I had never considered. Full of fast talkers and big spenders, glitz, and doom. Maybe a bit lengthy, but I would recommend this read.
#netgalley #simonandschuster #bookreview @Bubbleinthesun #nonfiction
The book goes on to follow the dreams of the movers and shakers of the prospect. The many interesting stories and people were shared in great wonderment and detail. Everyone wanted a piece of this action and there was no shortage of buyers. The prohibition was in full swing, but in Florida, the excesses of alcohol and luxury partying were welcome. People could not get enough or fast enough. At one point in the book it states "4000 people were entering Florida daily by car, an additional 3,000 by train, and hundreds more by ship". The author tells us this is a conservative estimation and does not include vacationers, snowbirds, retirees, etc. Populations soared, realty was booming, and the money flowed.
Finally, as all good things must come to an end, it was the natural disasters of Florida hurricanes that burst it's economic bubble and broke the state of financial strength. This not only devastated investors and developers, but shut down banks and sent people fleeing the state. All those involved were left destitute and broke. They lost, and they lost big, most never again to regain their fortunes and inheritances. Coinciding with Stock Market Crash of 1929, the Florida Sun Bubble became nothing but a poor investment example in greed and excessive overspending.
Very interesting read. Certainly a topic in which I had never considered. Full of fast talkers and big spenders, glitz, and doom. Maybe a bit lengthy, but I would recommend this read.
#netgalley #simonandschuster #bookreview @Bubbleinthesun #nonfiction
December 25, 2021
The Florida land boom makes other land rushes look like Black Fridays. 50,000 people moved to Oklahoma in 1889. 2,500,000 people came to Florida in 1925. The lucky ones would flip a lot the same day and profit by thousands. Of course, it didn't last and left a legacy of exploitation and environmental destruction.
The profile of an economic bubble never changes: A belief that values will continue rising forever, lax lending standards and over-extended credit, failure of regulation, using borrowed money to speculate rather than buy and hold, a foreseeable disaster (hurricane) with no recovery plan or resources, overpayments that build on overpayments*... . We know it well, but it happens anyway.
This book follows four men who were instrumental in developing Miami Beach, Palm Beach, Boca Raton, and Cocoanut Grove. All became wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. On paper. And they were true believers. No stock sales or golden parachutes in advance of the collapse; they went down with their ships. Fortunes and livers ruined, they lived out their days in modest obscurity.
The huge personalities (e.g., Addison Mizner, who always had a monkey named Johnny Brown on his shoulder) and outlandish huckstering (e.g., a promotional picture of a man driving a golf ball on the back of an elephant) are entertaining. For historians, the author injects something new with his theory that the Florida bust triggered the Great Depression. But overall, the story is too familiar.
* One developer, stuck with lots that weren't selling, raised prices by 10%, then advertised the increase as evidence that the lots were gaining value.
The profile of an economic bubble never changes: A belief that values will continue rising forever, lax lending standards and over-extended credit, failure of regulation, using borrowed money to speculate rather than buy and hold, a foreseeable disaster (hurricane) with no recovery plan or resources, overpayments that build on overpayments*... . We know it well, but it happens anyway.
This book follows four men who were instrumental in developing Miami Beach, Palm Beach, Boca Raton, and Cocoanut Grove. All became wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. On paper. And they were true believers. No stock sales or golden parachutes in advance of the collapse; they went down with their ships. Fortunes and livers ruined, they lived out their days in modest obscurity.
The huge personalities (e.g., Addison Mizner, who always had a monkey named Johnny Brown on his shoulder) and outlandish huckstering (e.g., a promotional picture of a man driving a golf ball on the back of an elephant) are entertaining. For historians, the author injects something new with his theory that the Florida bust triggered the Great Depression. But overall, the story is too familiar.
* One developer, stuck with lots that weren't selling, raised prices by 10%, then advertised the increase as evidence that the lots were gaining value.
September 29, 2020
For some time now, I have wanted to take a tour of Flagler College in Saint Augustine, Florida. I know we also have Flagler County and who knows how many Flagler Avenues, but before reading this book, I knew next to nothing about Henry Flagler. I was surprised to learn that he was actually one of Rockefeller's partners and, "[when] John D. Rockefeller was asked if the Standard Oil company was the result of his thinking, he answered, 'No, sir. I wish I had the brains to think of it. It was Henry M. Flagler.'"
Knowlton's book talks about Flagler and others who bought up real estate in Florida, building up resort towns and attracting extremely wealthy people from all over to come here and enjoy an amenities (including freely flowing alcohol during Prohibition). He makes the case that this real estate boom and its inevitable bust was a major contributing factor to the Great Depression. People were buying and selling land, often sight unseen, at increasingly higher prices; sometimes plots would change hands multiple times before the deed was even drawn.
He follows the lives of several prominent people, including Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, who I admit I had only previously heard of because of the Parkland school shooting. Knowing more about her now, about her journalism career and her conservation efforts, I am interested to read her writings. I am also now curious to learn more about the work of architect, Addison Mizner.
Knowlton's book talks about Flagler and others who bought up real estate in Florida, building up resort towns and attracting extremely wealthy people from all over to come here and enjoy an amenities (including freely flowing alcohol during Prohibition). He makes the case that this real estate boom and its inevitable bust was a major contributing factor to the Great Depression. People were buying and selling land, often sight unseen, at increasingly higher prices; sometimes plots would change hands multiple times before the deed was even drawn.
He follows the lives of several prominent people, including Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, who I admit I had only previously heard of because of the Parkland school shooting. Knowing more about her now, about her journalism career and her conservation efforts, I am interested to read her writings. I am also now curious to learn more about the work of architect, Addison Mizner.
April 8, 2020
Excellent and engaging read about the great Florida boom of the first quarter of the 20th century. Don't let the subtitle suggesting an economics lesson put you off. This is a well-written, engaging profile of the larger than life people who converted America's last frontier (pre-Alaska) into an exotic playground for the rich and those who hoped to be..
By profiling about a half-dozen key movers and shakers of the Florida boom, Knowlton draws a detailed, yet entertaining look at how a swampy, hot, sometimes fetid environment became a destination that drew people - and their money - from all over the world. The author doesn't neglect those who supported this extravegance either. Along the way he tells the stories of the workers and support people who are too often forgotten in social histories.
He also tells how this extravagance was not without cost, largely through the eyes of Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Introduced to Florida by her father, publisher of the Miami Herald, for which she worked, she quickly became aware of what the growth was doing to the natural world that was being displaced, especially the Everglades.
This is a well-balanced book, with multiple stories and lessons for our own time, a century removed from their telling.
By profiling about a half-dozen key movers and shakers of the Florida boom, Knowlton draws a detailed, yet entertaining look at how a swampy, hot, sometimes fetid environment became a destination that drew people - and their money - from all over the world. The author doesn't neglect those who supported this extravegance either. Along the way he tells the stories of the workers and support people who are too often forgotten in social histories.
He also tells how this extravagance was not without cost, largely through the eyes of Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Introduced to Florida by her father, publisher of the Miami Herald, for which she worked, she quickly became aware of what the growth was doing to the natural world that was being displaced, especially the Everglades.
This is a well-balanced book, with multiple stories and lessons for our own time, a century removed from their telling.
December 7, 2020
One of the characters in the wonderful novel Florence Adler Swims Forever, which I read several weeks ago, was caught up in the 1920s Florida land boom. When Bubble in the Sun was well-reviewed I was intrigued -- and now I know a LOT more about the early 20th century real estate wheeling and dealing that made modern Florida. Knowlton doesn't write only about the land guys -- he also includes Marjory Stoneman Douglas who crusaded to preserve the Everglades. It's quite a story and it's very well-written.
July 17, 2020
This is a fascinating, frenetic, and fun account of a wild time in economic history: the Roaring Twenties and Florida's development and real estate. The author's thesis is that this contributed greatly to the Great Depression. But he also delves into the lives of the men and women--specifically George Merrick, Carl Fisher, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and Addison Mizner--who were key players. The cultural history of the decade and the architectural history of South Florida is engrossing and entertaining, maddening, heartbreaking, and amazing to read. The author also draws comparisons with the 2008 housing crisis but, there again, we humans have short memories and do not seem to learn our lessons and will forever repeat mistakes, citing "but this time will be different." Ha!
January 16, 2023
As a Floridian, I enjoyed the early history. However, thought the author spent way too much time forecasting the pending property bust but didn't spend any time actually explaining the mechanics of how it happened.
If you are simply interested in learning more about the characters that helped to develop Florida, this is a great book. If you are looking for more insight into the boom and how it was created and how it burst, the book leaves something to be desired.
If you are simply interested in learning more about the characters that helped to develop Florida, this is a great book. If you are looking for more insight into the boom and how it was created and how it burst, the book leaves something to be desired.
Read
June 23, 2024Did not finish. I loved the premise but it was just too dry. I got about 1/3 through before I just gave up. Too many different stories to follow. I think it would have been better if it focused on just a few of the key people and their stories, and was edited down more (too many details that weren't necessary to the overall story).
Read
November 29, 2021Read this for research. Great description of the Florida land boom, but I didn't quite make the connection to the Depression (had to have someone with financial experience explain it). Despite the topic, the book was very readable.
February 8, 2020
For fans of Florida lore. Of special interest to me were the stories of architect Addison Mizner and the mysterious disappearance at sea of D.P. Davis, founder of Davis Islands.
September 11, 2020
Interesting
January 21, 2023
I do love a good boom/bust story (Devil Take the Hindmost, The Big Short) and this one did not disappoint!
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