Books & Books is proud to present an evening with Dr. Evan Bennett discussing his book Tampa Bay The Story of an Estuary and Its People (Florida in Focus)(University Press of Florida, $26.95).
***Please note: This event will take place at the Books & Books in Coral Gables at 265 Aragon Ave. Tickets are FREE and books will be available for purchase at the event. Can't make the event? Order your copy online.
About the Book:
Exploring the environmental history of an important natural area
The largest open water estuary in Florida, Tampa Bay has been a flashpoint of environmental struggles and action in recent years. This book goes beneath today’s news headlines to explore how people have interacted with nature in the region throughout its long history.
In Tampa Bay, Evan Bennett reveals that humans have been part of the bay’s ecology since the estuary took its modern form 2,000 years ago, along with the communities of fish, birds, reptiles, and mammals that proliferated in its seagrass meadows, tidal salt flats, and mangrove forests. Bennett discusses the natural resources that drew people to settle there, the trade that encouraged development, and the shipping and industry that increased biological and ecological change.
While the past 150 years have seen serious environmental damage from dredging, water pollution, red tides, and more, Bennett shows how people have been fighting to clean up the bay and regain a balance with nature. Informed by the latest in marine science, area environmentalists, policymakers, and citizens are working to create a model for other societies that have developed in fragile natural areas.
The first book to examine the environmental history of the region, Tampa Bay uncovers deep-rooted relationships between water, land, and peopleand offers hope for bringing threatened coastal spaces back from the brink.
About the Author:
Evan Bennett was born-and-raised in Tampa. He earned a BA and an MA in history from the University of South Florida before going on to complete a PhD in American History from the College of William & Mary. He is now an associate professor of history at Florida Atlantic University, where he teaches courses in Florida history, environmental history, and labor history. He is a scholar of the American South who is interested most in the intersections of work and nature, or, to put it another way, how people work under the sun.
