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This title in other formats:The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradiseby Michael Grunwald
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:The Everglades was once reviled as a liquid wasteland, and Americans dreamed of draining it. Now it is revered as a national treasure, and Americans have launched the largest environmental project in history to try to save it. The Swamp is the stunning story of the destruction and possible resurrection of the Everglades, the saga of man's abuse of nature in southern Florida and his unprecedented efforts to make amends. Michael Grunwald, a prize-winning national reporter for The Washington Post, takes readers on a riveting journey from the Ice Ages to the present, illuminating the natural, social and political history of one of America's most beguiling but least understood patches of land.
The Everglades was America's last frontier, a wild country long after the West was won. Grunwald chronicles how a series of visionaries tried to drain and "reclaim" it, and how Mother Nature refused to bend to their will; in the most harrowing tale, a 1928 hurricane drowned 2,500 people in the Everglades. But the Army Corps of Engineers finally tamed the beast with levees and canals, converting half the Everglades into sprawling suburbs and sugar plantations. And though the southern Everglades was preserved as a national park, it soon deteriorated into an ecological mess. The River of Grass stopped flowing, and 90 percent of its wading birds vanished. Now America wants its swamp back. Grunwald shows how a new breed of visionaries transformed Everglades politics, producing the $8 billion rescue plan. That plan is already the blueprint for a new worldwide era of ecosystem restoration. And this book is a cautionary tale for that era. Through gripping narrative and dogged reporting, Grunwald shows how the Everglades is still threatened by the same hubris, greed and well-intentioned folly that led to its decline. Review:"Washington Post reporter Grunwald brings the zeal of his profession — and the skill that won him a Society of Environmental Journalists Award in 2003 — to this enthralling story of 'the river of grass' that starry-eyed social engineers and greedy developers have diverted, drained and exploited for more than a century. In 1838, fewer than 50 white people lived in south Florida, and the Everglades was seen as a vast and useless bog. By the turn of this century, more than seven million people lived there (and 40 million tourists visited annually). Escalating demands of new residents after WWII were sapping the Everglades of its water and decimating the shrinking swamp's wildlife. But in a remarkable political and environmental turnaround, chronicled here with a Washington insider's savvy, Republicans and Democrats came together in 2000 to launch the largest ecosystem restoration project in America's history. This detailed account doesn't shortchange the environmental story — including an account of the senseless fowl hunts that provoked abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1877 broadside 'Protect the Birds.' But Grunwald's emphasis on the role politics played in first despoiling and now reclaiming the Everglades gives this important book remarkable heft. 18 pages of b&w photos; 7 maps." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:"In recent years, writers have devoted a lot of ink to the tortured history of south Florida's Everglades. But no one has nailed that story as effectively, as hauntingly and as dramatically as Michael Grunwald does in 'The Swamp,' a brilliant work of research and reportage about the evolution of a reviled bog into America's — if not the world's — most valuable wetland. Grunwald, a prize-winning... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) Review:Starred Review. Washington Post reporter Grunwald brings the zeal of his profession ? and the skill that won him a Society of Environmental Journalists Award in 2003 ? to this enthralling story of "the river of grass" that starry-eyed social engineers and greedy developers have diverted, drained and exploited for more than a century. In 1838, fewer than 50 white people lived in south Florida, and the Everglades was seen as a vast and useless bog. By the turn of this century, more than seven million people lived there (and 40 million tourists visited annually). Escalating demands of new residents after WWII were sapping the Everglades of its water and decimating the shrinking swamp's wildlife. But in a remarkable political and environmental turnaround, chronicled here with a Washington insider's savvy, Republicans and Democrats came together in 2000 to launch the largest ecosystem restoration project in America's history. This detailed account doesn't shortchange the environmental story ? including an account of the senseless fowl hunts that provoked abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1877 broadside "Protect the Birds." But Grunwald's emphasis on the role politics played in first despoiling and now reclaiming the Everglades gives this important book remarkable heft. 18 pages of b&w photos; 7 maps. (Mar.) Publishers Weekly. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review:"The colorful, infuriating, and instructive story of the Everglades is a riveting tale of ambition versus ecological reality, politics versus science, and, on the upside, our gradual awakening to the true nature of nature." Donna Seaman, Booklist. Starred Review Review:"This is a wonderfully written, provocative and important book. It combines history and investigative journalism to explore not only the Everglades but the larger tensions of a society's relationship with the environment. It's also a riveting story, the definitive account of south Florida's incredible journey from natural marshland to man-made megalopolis. There are many lessons here, and in the wake of Katrina it's time we learned them."
John Barry, author of Rising Tide and The Great Influenza Review:"In The Swamp, Michael Grunwald has produced a masterly narrative, a story of ambition and greed in the Everglades that is rich with character, entertainment and revelation. This is a quintessential chapter of American history and also an urgently important work of contemporary journalism." Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars Review:"Michael Grunwald is tough and clear-eyed and writes like a dream. Here, in The Swamp, he has found the perfect story — man's long struggle between destruction and salvation, played out in the Everglades of Florida. With its interwoven threads of history, science, politics and biography, Grunwald's work has brought a beautiful, dying place to life as never before." David Maraniss, author of They Marched into Sunlight and When Pride Still Mattered
Table of ContentsContents Introduction: "A Treasure for Our Country" Part One The Natural Everglades 1 Grassy Water 2 The Intruders 3 Quagmire 4 A New Vision 5 Drainage Gets Railroaded Part Two Draining the Everglades 6 The Reclamation of a Kingly Domain 7 The Father of South Florida 8 Protect the Birds 9 "Water Will Run Downhill!" 10 Land by the Gallon 11 Nature's Revenge 12 "Everglades Permanence Now Assured" 13 Taming the Everglades Part Three Restoring the Everglades 14 Making Peace with Nature 15 Repairing the Everglades 16 Something in the Water 17 Something for Everyone 18 Endgame Epilogue: The Future of the Everglades Notes Acknowledgments Index
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