Key West on the Edge - (Florida History and Culture) by Robert Kerstein (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

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.

From the Back Cover

"Key West is an island steeped in lore, from Hemingway to Fantasy Fest, but behind the façade of Margaritaville lie buried tensions and conflicts in need of examination. Kerstein provides a much-needed dose of reality in the form of a masterfully researched study of the island's tourism industry, from the shadowy power brokers who pull the strings to the underpaid workers who serve the drinks. From seedy bars to trendy discos, Kerstein has managed to capture the improbable mixture of this strange island, while offering a cautionary tale of tourism run amok."--Robert Lee Irby, author of 7,000 Clams

"An exemplary study and a cautionary tale that should be read by everyone interested in the suicidal course of a society driven by an irrational and self-destructive compulsion to erase differences in the pursuit of the almighty dollar."--Brewster Chamberlin, author of Mario Sanchez: Once Upon a Way of Life

"Refreshingly accurate account of how Key West invented the Conch Republic tourist economy from the ruins of the closed military complex. Highly recommended."--Tom Hambright, Monroe County Historian

"For anyone who has visited Key West or hopes to do so one day, Bob Kerstein provides a splendid history of the larger-than-life people and powerful social forces that shaped this unique American city into what it is today. He chronicles the decades-long struggle and mixed success of Key West's efforts to avoid the homogenization that seems inevitably to accompany large-scale tourism."--Scott Keeter, Pew Research Center

"Bob Kerstein's urban history of the 'Conch Republic' charts the evolution of Key West's quirky, nonconformist charm but also teases out long-running conflicts between its embrace of tourism and defense of authenticity. Alongside fascinating chronicles of the characters and capers that have made this city unique, Key West on the Edge presents a sobering consideration of the ways larger economic forces create tensions between the global and local, modernity and heritage, the power of the market and the power of place."--Rosemary Jann, George Mason University

Review Quotes

"Skillfully
weaves economic, social and cultural accounts that are both informing and fascinating.
[Kerstein's] fresh historical perspective reads like fiction, featuring a
lively cast of characters in a vivid setting full of surprises."--Tampa
Bay Magazine

"A real-deal
history about fast change in a strange place."--Daytona Beach News-Journal

"[Kerstein]
begins with the earliest visitors, tuberculosis patients in the 1830s, and
takes the reader through the impacts of the railroad and the Overseas Highway,
as well as cycles of real estate boom and bust."--Tampa Bay Times

"A holistic
history of tourism in one of the Sunshine State's most recognizable cities. . .
. Clarifies misconceptions and dispels myths while making a welcome addition to
Florida historical literature."--Journal of Southern History

"Kerstein
does a commendable job conveying the tension inherent in Key West's long
history with commercial tourism."--Southern Historian

"A
richly detailed local story."--Florida Historical Quarterly

About the Author

Robert Kerstein is professor of government at the University of Tampa and the author of Politics and Growth in Twentieth-Century Tampa.