The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise

Initially, I was quite impressed with Grunwald's book but when I got to page 107, I wanted to check his source for a statement that he made on that page. That was quite difficult because there is no bibliography in the book. None. If you want to check a reference, you'd better be prepared to do some digging on the Internet to track Grunwald's sources down. The reference in question was to a Flagler Museum supported book on Henry Flagler, by David Leon Chandler. I wouldn't trust anything that the Flagler Museum had a part in. I then started checking other sources cited by Grunwald and discovered pagination errors, merged sources (two sources in one citation with one having no author, for example) and incomplete source citations, as in just "Minutes". Minutes of what? Another source gives the cryptic "UFA, 1902, p. 4." as a source. A check of the archive abbreviations at the beginning of the Notes section doesn't list UFA. Is that University of Florida Archives? Who knows?

The book reads well but if you're looking for a solidly researched book, with proper citations, look elsewhere, because this isn't that book. Grunwald has a gift for writing, but his lack of documentation is inexcusable. I understand that the book is not an academic book, but since he included notes, those notes should have been properly documented. He obviously spent a huge amount of time writing the book and consulted numerous sources, but what are they? I was very disappointed.

Some readers of this review might complain that I am being picky. Yes, I am. If an author takes the time to spend a significant amount of time doing research for a book and chooses to include notes, then that author needs to provide citations that comply with accepted standards. If Grunwald had not included any sources, that would be one thing. But he does. So he needs to cite his sources properly. The lack of a bibliography is completely inexcusable.

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this book. Cite your sources. Cite your sources. Cite your sources!

I just finished Michael Grunwald's The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise. The book left me filled with conflicting emotions. I feel pride for my adopted state of Florida and the people that have worked so hard to make it such a fine place to live, and for our species for recognizing what a remarkable natural resource that The Everglades are. As Grunwald notes in his epilogue, there is "only on Everglades, and we have just about destroyed it. It is our ability to recognize this, and to make amends, that sets us apart from other species" (369).

It's a fine point, and one can't help but thank folks like Ernest Coe, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Nathaniel Reed, Paul Tudor Jones, Lawton Chiles, countless leaders of the Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes, and an untold list of other journalists, politicians, environmentalists, and citizens that dedicated their lives to the restoration of the River of Grass.

But I also feel disgust that the twentieth-century ethic of "slash, cut, dredge, and pave" has left the Glades a shadow of its once-majestic self. I spent some time looking at some of the most recent CERP findings (data set 2012-2017) and, while restoration has yielded some positive benefits, sprawl is still encroaching on the western Everglades and remains a threat to environmentally sensitive areas such as Big Cypress.

South Florida is essentially built out. Grunwald notes this in his meticulously written book, which was published fifteen years ago, and that statement is even more true now. The limits for horizontal growth in South Florida have been met, and there will need to be drastic changes in how communities continue to plan and develop as we move forward in the new millennium.

I loved this book, and I purchased a copy for my father--a hydrologist that spent more than forty years with the United State Forest Service watching commerce and conservation clash in communities throughout Oregon, Washington, and Colorado. Grunwald is both a lyrical science writer with an active prose style and a careful technical writer that is able to connect the dots between a vast amount of disparate research items. He covers the topic of the Everglades evenly and fairly, acknowledging the various usurpations and thefts of the American government toward the native people of the region with sympathy and pathos. Like many other chapters in American history, the attempted settlement of the Everglades isn't all butterflies and rainbows, and it's clear that various interests with both positive and nefarious intentions collaborated to severely damage America's Everglades.

And yet, the text concludes on a slightly optimistic note by pointing toward a twenty-first-century dynamic of restoration and conservation that will allow the River of Grass to return to some semblance of its former glory. I hope I live to see that day, although the projections for restoring water flow to only 70% of its original capacity are still not scheduled to be met for another twenty years into the future.

I hope to visit the Everglades in the coming months, even if only for a short time, and I wanted to post a quick review saying kudos to Michael Grunwald on writing an important book, and kudos to the various agencies now working to restore these great wetlands to their former glory.

As Marjory Stoneman Douglas said, There are no other Everglades in the world.

Great book, and timely to read, given the failure of the State of Florida to use the money authorized by Amendment 1 last year. The Voters want the sugar land purchased, gave the legislature the $$ to pay for it, but the state failed to act and the option has run out. Now the state is asking the federal government for money and says it is their problem. If you want to know about the intersection of politics and money, read this book it is excellent.

I became interested in this book when I saw the author, Michael Grunwald, on the PBS broadcast of "The Swamp" ("American Experience"). Mr. Grunwald's book is well-researched and serves as a cautionary tale that we shouldn't take the environment for granted or try to mold the natural world into our own desires and designs. I grew up in Florida and thought I knew a lot about Florida history. I learned a lot more from this book. This is really the best book on historical and continuing development in south Florida and I recommend it to you as scholarly, but also an enjoyable read.

I'm really not sure how to rate this book. If your goal is to learn about the Everglades I would give this book a 4-star rating. Maybe even a 5-star rating. If your goal is to read a good book then this is at best a 3-star book.

The information is simply overwhelming. Grunwald tells us everything. Unfortunately he does is without separating the important from the interesting.

This book would have benefited from more maps and images. I live in the Everglades but even I had trouble at times.

[[ASIN:0743251075 The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise]]

Once dismissed as a dismal swamp fit only for alligators, snakes, flamingos and Indians, the Everglades has become a battle ground in Florida's continuing tension between development and conservation.

In "The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise," Michael Grunwald writes a well-researched and fluently written history of America's unique ecosystem. The United States bought Florida from Spain for $5 million. A hundred years later, nearly $8 billion was proposed for a comprehensive development and restoration plan for the Everglades that has yet to be completed.
Along the way, a cast of colorful characters influenced the story, including Henry Flagler, John D. Rockefeller's partner and the builder of the "impossible' railroad from Palm Beach to Key West; Spencer Holland, Governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, and environmental secretaries from several administrations.
There were villains: "Big Sugar" and other agricultural interests that wanted to dump (and still do) their wastes in the headwaters of the Everglades; the railroads, which consumed rights of way as political payoffs; and the "Plumers," - hunters who almost exterminated Florida's native birds so wealthy women could wear feathers in their hats. Andrew Jackson's administration fought three wars of attrition against the Seminoles in what was America's first Vietnam. And there were heroes and heroines: Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who started out writing public relations pieces for developers and ended up in her `nineties and beyond as "The Mother of the Everglades"; and Ernest Coe, another visionary environmentalist.

The Everglades, and a proposed Jetport within it, influenced the outcome of the 2000 presidential election. It has pitted the powerful sugar industry against environmentalists, but also forged strange political alliances including that of lobbyists for U.S. Sugar and the Sierra Club. Grunwald, a political writer for the Washington Post, interviewed dozens of current and former political leaders to get an insider's picture of the wheeling, dealing, and chicanery that went into the 2000 Florida presidential election in which Al Gore, the Nobel Prize winning environmental champion, found himself on the wrong side of the environmental fence.

In summary, Grunwald has done a yeoman job in compiling this important book based on extensive journalistic and historical research.

-- 30 --
Postscript

"Florida buys Big Sugar" In the July 7, 2008 TIME Magazine, Michael Grunwald writes that the administration of Florida Governor Charlie Crist has made an offer to buy the US Sugar Corporation,including over 180,000 acres in the northern Everglades drainage area, for $1.75 Billion. Grunwald notes that what Crist's deal can do is "change the political ecosystem." He adds "by essentially bribing US Sugar out of business, Crist not only frees up its land but also eliminates an implacable obstacle to restoration."
(Hopefully, similar arrangements can be reached in other states where agribusiness threatens the economy --timber, railroads,chemicals, and so forth)

Being a native Floridian tracing family back to 1830s I love all history dealing with Florida. This book is one of the best I have ever read of any genre. The author takes the events and makes them read like a thriller which given the subject is challenging. I beg anyone interested in Florida, Everglades, Environment, or politics to read this book. It is a must read!

This is an outstanding piece of history/journalism as the author traces the Everglades and surrounding south Florida from the earliest Indians to the very latest politicians. Anyone who lives in or visits S. Florida should read this towering book as the author describes the villains and heroes who had a role in impacting the Everglades. Surprisingly, we find that the environmentalists (who were called conservationists in earlier times) were often just as wrong and opportunistic as were the politicians and the fat cats. There's blame for everybody who had a hand in despoiling this unique environmental treasure and then, with dubious motives and bureaucratic bumbling, sought to restore it. A Washington Post journalist, Grunwald brings to the book a generally leftist perspective --he keeps, for instance, harping on the alleged predations of "the white man." But you can see that he at least makes an effort to restrain himself -- not always successfully. He even occasionally takes a shot at a Democrat or an environmentalist, but in general, his opinions are predictable and often cliched. This mild criticism, however, should not take away from the success and importance of this comprehensive, well-done, easy-to-read saga about the Everglades, wherein lies an instructive tale of how big things get done (or not done) in America.

The Swamp is fascinating, relevant, timely, and compelling. It's not just a scientific study of the Everglades but a history of Florida. It's a must read for any Florida resident or anyone with an interest in the Everglades but anyone with an interest in ecology or American history should also enjoy it.

The is one of my top ten favorite books. This copies is yellowed out and always on loan to my friends. It's a long read because you read a few pages and you have to digest and think "Did that really happen?" Many kudos to Michael for writing this book is the only book on the Everglades I recommend to anyone. Facts, just the facts, tell us how much we, man, have screwed up the Everglades and now we must get them back. Send clean water south.