On September 16, 1928, the fifth most intense hurricane known to have struck the United States made landfall at West Palm Beach, Florida. Proceeding inland over Lake Okeechobee, the cyclone generated an extreme storm surge there which overwhelmed portions of the lake's inadequate levee system. At least 1,836 people died in the hurricane, making it Florida's deadliest natural disaster and the third costliest confirmed calamity (in terms of lives lost) in the nation's history. / The work begins with an introduction to Palm Beach County in 1928, the primary location of the disaster. After this the history of Florida's troubled reclamation and flood control program as relevant to the region and the evolution of the catastrophe is presented. The 1928 hurricane is then followed from its formation to the point of landfall in Florida, with particular attention given to the difficulties of forecasting its track and the various communications and warning problems which contributed to the tragedy's toll. An account of the storm and its effects along the coast is then rendered, followed by an explanation of the disaster at Lake Okeechobee and narratives of individual hurricane experiences along the lake shore. Relief, recovery and reconstruction efforts are considered, along with a brief analysis of casualties and economic impact. The work then discusses how the hurricane of 1928 led to an ongoing federal involvement in Florida's flood control and drainage programs, and how for the first time in its history Florida implemented a coordinated warning and evacuation procedure to protect a portion of the state from hurricanes. The dissertation concludes with the construction of the Hoover Dike and its testing under subsequent storms. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-12, Section: A, page: 4914. / Major Professor: Edward F. Keuchel. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 15-04, page: 0223. / Thesis (M.A.)--The Florida State University, 1976.

As Americans entered the post-World War II era, their mental world included two overlapping, but markedly different layers: one relativistic, another absolutist. / The relativistic layer had begun to emerge late in the nineteenth century as scholars developed open, dynamic, and evolutionary patterns of thought while rejecting closed and static systems. As a result, by mid-twentieth century there prevailed among most educated Americans an acceptance of the ideas of relativity and uncertainty concerning everything from subatomic physics to social ethics and religion. / The absolutist layer, expressing the grass-roots mind, stretched back virtually unchanged through the nineteenth century into the eighteenth. Characterized chiefly by belief in the free individual, traditional social values, and moral law, this layer has persisted among those whose education did not extend beyond high school, as well as among some who had attended college. / When confronted by urgent postwar crises, tens of millions of Americans sought final solutions for them. Even those of relativistic orientation succumbed to "yearning for absolutes"; they had had certainty, lost it, and then tried to regain it. / This study describes both mental layers and explores Americans' postwar quests for certainty. The most dramatic instance surfaced during the Civil Rights Movement, concerning equality. Going beyond legal equality and equality of opportunity for individuals, revolutionary measures sought equality of results for minorities (and later women) in employment, advancement, compensation, and preparation for living and working. These efforts, in turn, evoked a conservative reaction which became another quest for certainty, restating, reaffirming, and reasserting the traditional emphasis upon equality of opportunity with reward for the meritorious individual. Other quests for certainty which are explored here unfolded in (1) religion, particularly the vigorous new evangelicalism, and (2) education, whose goals became dual, involving delivery of education of excellent quality while assuring equality of educational opportunity. / Emanating from different mental layers, these quests were alternately creative and preservative, counterbalancing each other. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-10, Section: A, page: 3340. / Major Professor: Maurice Milton Vance. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

Prohibition sprang forth from the Progressive Era--the widespread reform movement that swept across the United States at the turn of the century. Responding to the dramatic changes in American society since the end of the Civil War, the Progressive movement encompassed a wide array of individuals and groups advocating a far-reaching program of economic, political, and social reform. For over forty years temperance zealots strived to impose their values on the whole of American society, particularly on the rapidly expanding immigrant population. These alien newcomers epitomized the transformation of the country from rural to urban, from agricultural to industrial. / Rapidly-expanding urban centers were often the battleground between prohibitionists and supporters of the whiskey traffic. European immigrants, retaining their traditional values, gravitated to metropolitan areas such as Boston, New York, and Chicago. With the opening of the cigar industry in the mid-1880s, Tampa, Florida also began attracting large numbers of immigrants. Because of its pluralistic composition, the city might serve as a microcosm of the national struggle between the "wet" and "dry" forces. / Using newspapers, oral interviews, and other primary materials, this study traces the various aspects of the prohibition movement in the city of Tampa. In addition, it details other peripheral areas associated with the advent of the Eighteenth Amendment including the drug and alien trades. Finally, this study examines the lengthy efforts to repeal the "Noble Experiment" and return legalized drinking back to Tampa. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-03, Section: A, page: 0778. / Major Professor: Edward Keuchel. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

Union Colony in the Confederate South studies a retirement community in North Florida developed for veterans of the Union army. Hundreds of acres of virgin pine and palmetto along St. Andrews Bay were purchased by William Harcourt Lynn as president of a Delaware chartered company, the St. Andrews Bay Development Company. The project was promoted by the Grand Army of The Republic, a Union veteran's organization. Lots in the planned colony were advertised in The National Tribune, a G.A.R. publication and sold by agents throughout the country. In 1911, aged men and their families took possession of their property in the new town, Lynn Haven. Over the next two years, the colony experienced a period of astounding growth. These twentieth-century pioneers/retirees built homes, businesses, and churches there. They established social and civic clubs and instituted local government. Both Lynn Haven and the new Bay County were chartered in 1913. The veterans provided a school for the children and educational opportunities for all citizens. Their experiences demonstrate that the west coast was promoted much as the east coast, but developed in its own unique manner. Many lived out their years enjoying the Florida environment, but survival of the town became questionable as economic problems developed and the population declined as the settlers died. / Unfortunately, the developer, Lynn, and his company did not realize the financial rewards they anticipated. By 1915, the community bank failed and by 1917, the St. Andrews Bay Company went into receivership. William Lynn turned his attention to other promotions, and the town bearing his name was left to fend for itself. By 1920 the population had declined from two thousand to seven hundred. Only through the concerted efforts of the transplanted Northerners who had grown to love their community in the South did Lynn Haven survive to become the prosperous community that today approaches its centennial. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-02, Section: A, page: 0834. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

Horseracing flourished in antebellum north Florida only to lose favor in the 1840s. A resurgence of interest after the Civil War sustained horseracing into the twentieth century as it spread to Jacksonville, Orlando, and Tampa. Opposition to gambling culminated in a 1911 state law which temporarily curtailed racing. Proponents bounced back with creative, alternative betting schemes and horseracing continued. With the south Florida land boom in the 1920s, racing moved into the Miami area to stay and prosper. First Hialeah Park in 1925, followed by Tropical Park in 1931, and then Gulfstream Park in 1939 opened to popular acclaim. Fighting anti-gambling opponents, horsemen convinced the state legislature to legalize pari-mutuel betting in 1931, a move designed to boost the ailing economy with much-needed revenue. While the three tracks battled for the best winter racing dates, organized crime infiltrated the tracks as race horse owners, bookmakers, and controlling interests in the tracks. Expelled in 1941 from Tropical Park, organized crime otherwise continued unabated until Senator Estes Kefauver's investigations in 1950-51. Horseracing survived the scrutiny to become the number one spectator sport in the United States in the 1950s. Sunshine Park near Tampa revived racing on the west coast, and the first new, all-weather track for summer racing, Calder, opened in Dade County in 1971. Tropical became a Dade County parks and recreation facility, Gulfstream surged ahead of Hialeah in attendance and money generated for state coffers, and economics threatened to close the grand-dame of Florida racing, Hialeah. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-01, Section: A, page: 0332. / Major Professor: Edward F. Keuchel. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

A detailed history of Santa Rosa County--Florida's twenty-first county--was compiled for the period covering the years 1821 to 1865. The second most western county in the state, Santa Rosa was created from Escambia County in 1842. The study traces the area's development from the end of the Spanish period to the termination of the Civil War. Aspects covered in the work include the role of early pioneers, frontier life, Indian wars, brick-making, the lumber industry, politics, slavery, industrial development, the formation of communities, religion, social life, and the impact of the Civil War. / A courthouse fire destroyed the county's records in 1869; consequently, the early portion of the county's history has hitherto been neglected in any historical treatments. Santa Rosa was the most industrialized county in the state of Florida before the Civil War. The yellow pine lumber industry was vital to the county's economy and was essential in providing economic support to the nearby port city of Pensacola as well. The in-depth study of the county also serves as a microcosmic analysis of the Old South, revealing both similarities and differences with commonly held assumptions of the Old South as a whole. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-04, Section: A, page: 1364. / Major Professor: John Hebron Moore. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

Between 1945 and 1962, a cohesive faction of Florida state senators known as the "Pork Chop Gang" controlled the upper chamber. This faction, composed primarily of senators from north Florida, resisted efforts to shift the balance of power in the legislature from the heavily Southern native, north Florida to the rapidly growing, largely non-Southern native, south Florida. Florida possessed the most severely malapportioned legislature at the time. By blocking efforts to reapportion the legislature, the "Porkchoppers" preserved control of Florida's legislature by the heavily Southern native, north Florida. / The work begins with general information on the dynamics of Florida politics in the first half of the twentieth century. The background and character of prominent "Porkchop" senators is reviewed. Regionalism in Florida and the 1945 legislative reapportionment are discussed. The political and social structures by which the "Porkchoppers" controlled the legislature are analyzed. The relationship between Governor Leroy Collins and the "Pork Chop Gang" is chronicled. The role of the pork choppers and Senator Charley Johns in Florida's desegregation crisis is addressed. Maps are analyzed which display regional voting patterns and their correlation to population growth. Finally the epilogue briefly discusses the rapid decline of the "Gang". / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-12, Section: A, page: 4915. / Major Professor: William W. Rogers. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

Alive, John C. Calhoun exercised tremendous political influence over South Carolina. Dead, his legacy was the determining factor in her political course in the ensuing decade. The disruption of the National Democratic party in 1860 and the cooperative secession of the lower South, led by South Carolina, brought Calhoun's political legacy to fulfillment. This dissertation looked closely at the South Carolinian's post-nullification career, largely from his own perspective. Calhoun was clearly driven in this period to uniting the South in its own defense. Reform of the general government, even through the powerful instrument of southern union, had become impossible by 1850. By Calhoun's own reckoning, the cooperative action of the southern states must lead to a separate confederacy. / The thrust of the dissertation dealt with how Calhoun's legacy was acted upon by the South Carolinians in the 1850s. In the state's first secession crisis of 1851, his legacy of united southern resistance was sustained when the state chose not to secede alone. Her secession in 1860, prefaced by assurances of cooperation from the cotton states, put his legacy into play. References to Calhoun were frequent, encompassing such issues as the rise of a National Democratic party in South Carolina, the acquisition of Cuba, and the admission of Kansas. Indeed, South Carolina spent much of the decade lamenting his loss and the want of a worthy successor to his mantle. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-04, Section: A, page: 1361. / Major Professor: James Jones. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

This is a detailed account of the Florida Federal Theatre's State-Wide Touring Company, starting with the formation of the Jacksonville Repertory Company in 1936, through its transformation into a touring theatre company in October, 1937, until the termination of the Federal Theatre Project in June, 1939. It includes complete descriptions of all the company productions during two full seasons "on the road"--Miles Gloriosus, The Chester and Everyman, Twelfth Night, She Stoops to Conquer, The Girl of the Golden West, One Sunday Afternoon, When Knighthood was in Flower, If Ye Break Faith, the outdoor Chester Cycle Nativity of 1938, The Rise of Silas Lapham, R.U.R., Uncle Tom's Cabin, and Remember the Day. Each production is discussed in terms of the play and its selection, the production itself, the tour itinerary and the public response. A summary and evaluation of the company's work is included, along with appendices listing complete tour itineraries and all known company personnel, extensive bibliography of primary sources, and sixty-four photographs. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-12, Section: A, page: 3553. / Major Professor: Richard Hornby. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.