2016 Coastal Perspective Lecture Series
University of Connecticut
Avery Point
Tuesday, April 5th , 7:30 p.m.
" A Better South?: Port Towns as Cosmopolitan Beachheads After the Civil War”
By Mark Long, Ph.D
Associate Professor of History and Social Sciences, Sea Education Association
The transformation of the Florida peninsula in the decades following the Civil War was spectacular. In 1865 the state was left with a decimated economy, the loss of its slave-based labor force, and no functioning government. Yet, a mere twenty years later, it was home to a rapidly-expanding citrus industry, a vibrant tourist trade a booming real estate market. In short, the “Sunshine State” rose like a phoenix from the ashes of secession. The forces that forged modern Florida into a booming cosmopolitan center were tied overwhelmingly to the maritime nexus into which its economy was fixed, with the port of Jacksonville serving as the point of connection to the American east coast, the Atlantic rim and the greater Caribbean. As settlement moved southward along the peninsula, the history of the state was shaped, in part, by an ongoing conflict between its outward-focused maritime and littoral influences on one hand and the counter pull of its interior on the other.
Biography:
Mark, a native Floridian, is an Associate Professor of History & Social Science at the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, MA. His work traces the intersections between maritime, economic and environmental history. He received his Ph.D. in History from Loyola University in Chicago and taught for the twelve years at the University of Central Florida, having recently joined the faculty at SEA.
Lecture series is FREE and open to the public. Lectures begin at 7:30 p.m., with light refreshments at 7:10.
Please join us in our newly renovated 300-seat auditorium for the 20th Annual Coastal Perspectives Lecture Series. The auditorium is located on the second floor of the Academic Building (disabled accessible). Enter through the Academic Building or through the Student Center. There is a limited-capacity elevator on the first floor of the Academic Building. Please call us with your questions, or concerns, on the limited-mobility access points to the auditorium at 860-405-9025, or email Noreen.blaschik@uconn.edu.
This series is sponsored by UCONN Avery Point, the Connecticut Sea Grant College Program, the Department of Marine Sciences, UCONN and the Maritime Studies Program, UCONN. For more information, a printable lecture flyer, or a campus map, visit our website at http://marinesciences.uconn.edu/lectures/ or email CoastalPerspectives@uconn.edu.
To be added to or removed from our listserv, send an email to CoastalPerspectives@uconn.edu.
For more information, contact: Noreen at 8064059025