Books published by University Press of Florida

Offers interpretations of the Haitian-born authors. This title examines how writers participate in transnational movements for global social justice. It discusses the Unites States' interventionist methods in Haiti, including surveillance, foreign aid, and military assistance.

In 1971, Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs. Despite foreign policy efforts and attempts to combat supply lines, the United States has been for decades, and remains today, the largest single consumer market for illicit drugs on the planet. This volume argues that the war on drugs has been ineffective at best and, at worst, has been highly detrimental to many countries.

In this book, Leon Pamphile presents the story of the 100-year relationship between the United States and Haiti and chronicles the internal, external, and natural forces that have shaped the nation as it is today, keeping a balance between the realities faced by the people on the island and the global and transnational contexts that affect their lives.

Takes us inside the UF Water Institute, where talent from throughout the university address complex water issues through innovative research, education, and public outreach programs. Teams develop new scientific breakthroughs, creative engineering, policy and legal solutions, and educational programs that are renowned for addressing state, national, and global water-resource problems.

Examines the 2,000-year history of the ancient farming community of Chan in Belize, explaining why the average person should matter to archaeologists studying larger societal patterns. Cynthia Robin argues that the impact of what is commonly perceived as habitual or quotidian can be substantial, and a study of a polity without regard to the citizenry is woefully incomplete.

Examines powwows as practiced primarily along the Atlantic coastline, from New Jersey to New England. It offers an introduction to the many complexities of the tradition and explores the history of powwow performance, the variety of their setups, the dances themselves, and the phenomenon of "playing Indian".

Winner of the Florida Book Award for Florida Nonfiction, Bronze Winner of the Florida Historical Society's Harry T. & Harriette V. Moore Award "Hobbs unearths four lynchings that are critical to the understanding of the origins of civil rights in Florida. The oral histories from the victims' families and those in the communities make this a valuable contribution to African American, Florida, and civil rights history."--Derrick E. White, author of The Challenge of Blackness "A compelling reminder of just how troubling and violent the Sunshine State's racial past has been. A must read."--Irvin D.S. Winsboro, editor of Old South, New South, or Down South? Florida is frequently viewed as an atypical southern state--more progressive and culturally diverse--but, when examined in proportion to the number of African American residents, it suffered more lynchings than any of its Deep South neighbors during the Jim Crow era. Investigating this dark period of the state's history and focusing on a rash of anti-black violence that took place during the 1940s, Tameka Hobbs explores the reasons why lynchings continued in Florida when they were starting to wane elsewhere. She contextualizes the murders within the era of World War II, contrasting the desire of the United States to broadcast the benefits of its democracy abroad while at home it struggled to provide legal protection to its African American citizens. As involvement in the global war deepened and rhetoric against Axis powers heightened, the nation's leaders became increasingly aware of the blemish left by extralegal violence on America's reputation. Ultimately, Hobbs argues, the international implications of these four murders, along with other antiblack violence around the nation, increased pressure not only on public officials in Florida to protect the civil rights of African Americans in the state but also on the federal government to become more active in prosecuting racial violence.

The University of Florida has an ambitious goal: to harness the power of its faculty, staff, students, and alumni to solve some of society's most pressing problems and to become a resource for the state of Florida, the nation, and the world. Hurricanes and tornadoes--and the devastation they leave in their wake--are feared across the globe, but at the University of Florida these natural phenomena are a fascinating research opportunity. At UF's Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure and Environment, wind engineers like Forrest Masters and David Prevatt study storm systems and design buildings to better withstand the forces of nature. Follow their stories as they venture inside Hurricane Wilma with wind gauges, travel to Joplin, Missouri to assess the wind-damage from the most powerful tornado in more than a half century, and conduct experiments with the lab's infamous "Multi-Axis Wind Load Simulator," ominously nicknamed "The Judge." Yet the job of the UF wind engineers does not end there. They take their findings to the drafting table, build roofs and walls, and test shingles, shutters, and garage doors. Their goal: to make sure our houses are still standing, and we are safe, after the storm. The stories chronicled in GATORBYTES span all colleges and units across the UF campus. They detail the far-reaching impact of UF's research, technologies, and innovations--and the UF faculty members dedicated to them. Gatorbytes describe how UF is continuing to build on its strengths and extend the reach of its efforts so that it can help even more people in even more places.

Sonja Watson examines the writing of black Panamanian authors to reveal how race is defined, contested, and inscribed in Panama. She tells the story of two competing cultures: Afro-Hispanics whose ancestors came as slaves during the colonial period and West Indians whose families arrived more recently from English-speaking Caribbean countries to build the Panama Railroad and Panama Canal.While Afro-Hispanics assimilated after centuries of mestizaje (race mixing) and now identify with their Spanish heritage, West Indians hold to their British Caribbean roots and identify more closely with Africa and the Caribbean. The literature discussed in this book displays the cultural, racial, and national tensions that prevent these two groups from forging a shared Afro-Panamanian identity. The Politics of Race in Panama shows why ethnically diverse Afro-descendant populations continue to struggle to create racial unity in nations across Latin America.

Almost all remnants of culture--past and present--degrade over time, whether sculpture or scrolls, painting or papyrus, books or clay tablets. Perhaps no major cultural record dissolves more rapidly than film, arguably the predominant medium of the twentieth century.Given the fragility of early nitrate film, much has already been lost. The fragments that remain--whether complete prints of theatrical releases or scraps of everyday life captured by Thomas Edison--only hint at what has disappeared. More recently, archives have been flooded with so much material that they lack the funds to properly preserve it all. Both situations raise questions about how film archives shape our understanding of history and culture.Janna Jones provides a stunning, tour-de-force analysis of the major assumptions and paradigmatic shifts about history, cinema, and the moving image archive, one that we ignore at our peril in the midst of the overwhelming rush toward digitization. No student of film, twentieth-century history, or archiving and preservation can afford to miss The Past Is a Moving Picture

The first anthology in over twenty-five years to focus exclusively on American dance practices across a wide span of American culture. This volume and its companion show how social experience, courtship, sexualities, and other aspects of life in America are translated through dancing into spatial patterns, gestures, and partner relationships.

Analyzes first-person narratives by five Francophone Caribbean writers - Joseph Zobel, Patrick Chamoiseau, Gisele Pineau, Edwidge Danticat, and Maryse Conde - that manifest distinctive interaction among narrators, protagonists, characters, and readers through a layering of voices, languages, time, sources, and identities.

Celebrates the work of one of America's most influential journalists who wrote in a time and place of dramatic social and political upheaval. The editor of the Atlanta Constitution from 1960 to 1968, Patterson wrote directly to his fellow white southerners every day, working to persuade them to change their ways.

Based on the vivid firsthand testimony of prominent Afro-Cubans who live in Cuba, this book of interviews looks at ways that race affects daily life on the island. Contributors express an urgent need to end the silences and distortions of history in both pre-and post-revolutionary Cuba.