The Florida Boom of the 1920s and Its Role in the Onset of the Great Depression: A Look at the "Bubble in the Sun" Phenomenon

Samosagirl: A fascinating, compelling, and important read, especially as a Floridian.

United States on Aug 13, 2023

leonard erdman: 🙏🙏🙏

United States on Jul 01, 2023

Marc and Susan Osborne: This book covers Florida's real estate bubble of the 1920s. Mr. Knowlton tries to give the book some weight by asserting that the collapse of the bubble triggered the Great Depression, but even he doesn't seem very convinced by that reasoning, and it has minimal support among economists. He also throws in some social history, acknowledging the terrible racism of the period, for instance, and referring sometimes to the impoverished people who flocked to Florida and got caught in the bust. But mostly he serves up gossipy tales of real estate magnates who drove the bubble and then lost everything in the end. If that sounds critical, it's not meant to be. You probably won't gain any profound wisdom from Mr. Knowlton's book, but it's a fun read. It will probably be especially interesting for Florida residents.

United States on Dec 19, 2020

Fred Forbes: I got into this one for two reasons. First, as a long time Floridian who spends a lot of time in the areas covered (much of the state, actually) I wanted to get into the discussion of the people who shaped our culture (?) and history. Second, the book makes the claim that the Florida land boom and bust was a huge contributor to the collapse of the economy in the nineteen twenties and actually makes a pretty good case for that. Well written, notated and sourced and worthy of interest for any Floridian - go ahead, pick out a spot on the beach, grab a drink, plop your carcass down and settle in for a worthy read.

Also, talk about a great life lesson - "...not one of Florida's four real estate kings survived the boom with either his fortune or his health intact. One drank himself to death, one ate himself to death, one worked himself to death, and one most probably committed suicide on a desperate, drunken dare". Fascinating stuff, but their names live on in the names of structures and locations through out the state.

United States on Oct 21, 2020

Peter N: Extraordinarily entertaining light reading. Particularly fun history of local sites for those living today in Palm Beach, Coral Gables, Boca Raton, Miami and Miami Beach.

A fascinating and captivating series of vignettes of the “characters” who created Florida, from a swamp, from the 1890s to the 1930s.

Starting with Henry M. Flagler, John D. Rockefeller’s business partner, and the builder of: (1) the railroad to Key West that became the spine of Eastern Florida; (2) monumental hotels in St. Augustine, Palm Beach and Key Biscayne; and (3) a Palm Beach residence for his 37-year-younger third wife, a, “marble masterpiece [that] was dubbed “the Taj Mahal of North America” by the New York Herald. It combined Greek and Roman architecture with French and Italian Renaissance motifs, and endures today as the Flagler Museum.”

Knowlton’s book brings back to life the colorful real estate characters who developed Florida’s Southeast coast, and their various friends and acquaintances. Almost all first became very wealthy and ultimately died broke. Knowlton’s portrayal of Addison Mizner, the Palm Beach architect, entertaining roaring twenties society in...

United States on Mar 29, 2020