Oh, Florida!: How America's Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country

A New York Times Bestseller

To some people, Florida is a paradise; to others, a punch line. As Oh, Florida! shows, it's both of these and, more important, it's a Petri dish, producing trends that end up influencing the rest of the country. Without Florida there would be no NASCAR, no Bettie Page pinups, no Glenn Beck radio rants, no USA Today, no "Stand Your Ground," ...You get the idea.

To outsiders, Florida seems baffling. It's a state where the voters went for Barack Obama twice, yet elected a Tea Party candidate as governor. Florida is touted as a carefree paradise, yet it's also known for its perils--alligators, sinkholes, pythons, hurricanes, and sharks, to name a few. It attracts 90 million visitors a year, some drawn by its impressive natural beauty, others bewitched by its manmade fantasies.

Oh, Florida! explores those contradictions and shows how they fit together to make this the most interesting state. It is the first book to explore the reasons why Florida is so wild and weird--and why that's okay. But there is far more to Florida than its sideshow freakiness. Oh, Florida! explains how Florida secretly, subtly influences all the other states in the Union, both for good and for ill.

Author: Craig Pittman
Publisher: Picador USA
Published: 09/05/2017
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.40w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781250143648

About the Author
CRAIG PITTMAN is an award-winning reporter and columnist for Florida's largest newspaper, the Tampa Bay Times. He is a native Floridian who has written three previous books about Florida topics. In 2013, he wrote a popular blog for Slate called "Oh, Florida!" which became the genesis for this book, and which led to multiple appearances on TV and radio discussing why Florida is so odd and entertaining. He lives in St. Petersburg with his wife and two children.