Florida has had many frontiers. Imagination, greed, missionary zeal, disease, war, and diplomacy have created its historical boundaries. Bodies of water, soil, flora and fauna, the patterns of Native American occupation, and ways of colonizing have defined Florida's frontiers. Paul E. Hoffman tells the story of those frontiers and how the land and the people shaped them during the three centuries from 1565 to 1860. For settlers to La Florida, the American Southeast ca. 1500, better natural and human resources were found on the piedmont and on the western side of Florida's central ridge, while the coasts and coastal plains proved far less inviting. But natural environment was only one important factor in the settlement of Florida. The Spaniards, the British, the Seminole and Miccosuki, the Spaniards once again, and finally Americans constructed their Florida frontiers in interaction with the Native Americans who were present, the vestiges of earlier frontiers, and international events. The near-completion of the range and township surveys by 1860 and of the deportation of most of the Seminole and Miccosuki mark the end of the Florida frontier, though frontier-like conditions persisted in many parts of the state into the early 20th century. For this major work of Florida history, Hoffman has drawn from a broad range of secondary works and from his intensive research in Spanish archival sources of the 16th and 17th centuries. Florida's Frontiers will be welcomed by students of history well beyond the Sunshine State.

For centuries, men dreamed of cutting a canal across the Florida peninsula. Intended to reduce shipping times, it was championed in the early twentieth century as a way to make the mostly rural state a center of national commerce and trade. Rejected by the Army Corps of Engineers as "not worthy," the project received continued support from Florida legislators. Federal funding was eventually allocated and work began in the 1930s, but the canal quickly became a lightning rod for controversy. Steven Noll and David Tegeder trace the twists and turns of the project through the years, drawing on a wealth of archival and primary sources. Far from being a simplistic morality tale of good environmentalists versus evil canal developers, the story of the Cross Florida Barge Canal is a complex one of competing interests amid the changing political landscape of modern Florida. Thanks to the unprecedented success of environmental citizen activists, construction was halted in 1971, though it took another twenty years for the project to be canceled. Though the land intended for the canal was deeded to the state and converted into the Cross Florida Greenway, certain aspects of the dispute--including the fate of Rodman Reservoir--have yet to be resolved.

In practice, many different people with backgrounds in many different disciplines contribute to the design of an enterprise. Anyone who makes decisions to change the current enterprise to achieve some preferred structure is considered a designer. What is problematic is how to use the knowledge of separate aspects of the enterprise to achieve a globally optimized enterprise. The synthesis of knowledge from many disciplines to design an enterprise defines the field of enterprise engineering. Because enterprise systems are exceedingly complex, encompassing many independent domains of study, students must first be taught how to think about enterprise systems. Specifically written for advanced and intermediate courses and modules, Design of Enterprise Systems: Theory, Architecture, and Methods takes a system-theoretical perspective of the enterprise. It describes a systematic approach, called the enterprise design method, to design the enterprise. The design method demonstrates the principles, models, methods, and tools needed to design enterprise systems. The author uses the enterprise system design methodology to organize the chapters to mimic the completion of an actual project. Thus, the book details the enterprise engineering process from initial conceptualization of an enterprise to its final design. Pedagogical tools available include: For instructors: PowerPoint® slides for each chapter Project case studies that can be assigned as long-term projects to accompany the text Quiz questions for each chapter Business Process Analyzer software available for download For students: Templates, checklists, forms, and models to support enterprise engineering activities The book fills a need for greater design content in engineering curricula by describing how to design enterprise systems. Inclusion of design is also critical for business students, since they must realize the import their decisions may have on the long-term design of the enterprises they work with. The book’s practical focus and project-based approach coupled with the pedagogical tools gives students the knowledge and skills they need to lead enterprise engineering projects.