- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
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About this book
How the unique island city came to be a major tourist destination
Florida Historical Society Charlton Tebeau Book Award
Key West lies at the southernmost point of the continental United States,
ninety miles from Cuba, at Mile Marker 0 on famed U.S. Highway 1. Famous for
six-toed cats in the Hemingway House, Sloppy Joe’s and Captain Tony's, Jimmy
Buffett songs, body paint parade "costumes," and a brief secession
from the Union after which the Conch Republic asked for $1 billion in foreign
aid, Key West also lies at the metaphorical edge of our sensibilities.
How this unlikely city came to be a tourist mecca is the subject of Robert Kerstein's intrepid new history. Sited on an island only four miles long and two miles wide, Key West has been fishing village, salvage yard, U.S. Navy base, cigar factory, hippie haven, gay enclave, cruise ship port-of-call, and more. Duval Street, which stretches the length of one of the most unusual cities in America, is today lined with brand-name shops that can be found in any major shopping mall in America.
Leaving no stone unturned, Kerstein reveals how Key West has changed dramatically over the years while holding on to the uniqueness that continues to attract tourists and new residents to the island.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- Foreword
- Introduction
- 1. Key West's First Hundred Years: Wrecking, the Military, Cigar Making, and a Few Tourists
- 2. The Not-So-Roaring Twenties
- 3. The Depression and War Years: Tourism Dreams Give Way to Military Realities
- 4. Key West 1945–1970: Not a Clean Well-Lighted Place
- 5. Postwar Tourism
- 6. Island of Intrigue: Key West in the 1970s
- 7. Key West in Transition
- 8. The Gay Community and the Transformation of Key West
- 9. Key West in the 1980s and 1990s: Bringing in the Tourists
- 10. The Politics of Tourism and Development
- 11. Shelter for the Labor Force?
- 12. Island Tensions in the Twenty-First Century: Mass Tourism and Rising Real Estate Values in a “Unique” Community
- 13. One Human Family?
- Conclusion
- Acknowledgments
- Appendix
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index