Author and historian James C. Clark is a senior lecturer at the University of Central Florida, where he has taught since 1987. He is one of Florida’s leading historians, the author of 10 books, and the editor of a three-volume anthology of Florida literature. His work has been honored by the Florida Historical Society, the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors, and the Florida Magazine Association. He lives in Orlando. In A History Lover’s Guide to Florida (History & Guide) (History Press), Clark offers a lifetime of places to explore and thousands of fascinating facts, tracing the state’s long history from Pensacola to the Florida Keys. Florida is a state of transplants; even people who relocated here decades ago still claim their birthplace as their home. But some of them might change their mind if they knew that the Sunshine State can claim one of the richest histories in the nation. Decades before the Pilgrims, the Spanish celebrated Thanksgiving in Florida. Centuries before the first St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York, the holiday was celebrated in St. Augustine, where urban renewal was underway when Jamestown settlers arrived.
