The last frontier. The pharaoh of Florida ; A railroad goes to sea ; New arrivals ; Ballyhoo -- Grand plans. A Spanish dreamscape ; Merrick's ideal city ; Great migrations ; A writer's education ; Trail blazers ; Habitual intemperence -- Tropical fever. Miznerland ; Weigall whoops it up ; A house in Coconut Grove ; Crime waves ; "A parade of pink elephants and green monkeys" ; Pirates of promotion ; Lull before the storm -- Graveyard of dreams. Hurricanes ; Speculative dementia ; The death of ballyhoo and hokum ; "I used to make dreams come true" ; A legacy of greed and folly

"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. The new cities that rose rapidly from the teeming wetlands spawned a new subdivision civilization-- and an egregious large-scale assault on the environment in the name of progress. Knowlton examines the grand artistic and entrepreneurial visions behind Coral Gables, Boca Raton, Miami Beach, and other storied sites, as well as the darker side of the frenzy. Giant fortunes were made-- and lost; the nightlife raged raucously, and the pure beauty of the Everglades suffered wanton ruination while the workers, mostly black, who built and maintained the boom endured grievous abuses. -- adapted from jacket