A land history of Destin Florida from 1819-1940

The story of New London, Connecticut fisherman Leonard Destin being caught in a violent storm off the Florida coast in 1835 and settling in the area of northwest Florida that is today named for him has always been an interesting story shared by the residents and the many tourists who visit Destin, Florida.Destin historian H. C. ?Hank? Klein has spent five years doing the historical research necessary to separate facts from local legend. He has found out that there is a LOT more to the story than a fisherman simply looking for new fishing grounds.Klein's research has turned up the fact that the Destin family was a family of whalers and fisherman. Leonard's older brother George, Jr. was actually quite famous in New England whaling circles.Klein also discovered why they sailed so far from home in the fall of 1835 and what drew them to the Florida Keys. He also learned the name of the vessels (the sloop Empress and sloop Gallant) that ten seafarers, including Leonard, his father, and two brothers took on that fateful voyage to Key West, when Florida was still a territory.He found that the storm was actually the hurricane that hit Florida on September 15-17, 1835. That storm did a vast amount of damage to both land and vessels sailing off shore in the Atlantic Ocean.Leonard's father, his older brother William and two additional crew members lost their lives on that trip and both their vessels were wrecked.

A century ago, the life expectancy of a man living in the Florida Panhandle was less than 50 years. Women faired hardly any better. Yellow fever and malaria, parasites and poisonous snakes, sweltering heat and cataclysmic weather: These combined to make pioneer life in Northwest Florida one of the most challenging frontiers in the whole United States. Still, the settlers came, as the bounty and potential of the Panhandle were far too alluring. Rich farmland, primeval forests, abundant fishing and game, pristine coastline, and clean, fresh water held the promise of a good life and great wealth. So even in sometimes hellish conditions, paradise seemed within reach.Yet, in every paradise there are fallen angels, and Florida's backwoods had its fair share of those. Post-Civil War, these bayous and timberlands became a haven for moonshiners, outlaws, and bandits as mean and wretched as any desperado of the American West. Walton County, the absolute heart of the Florida Panhandle, may have been the wildest community of all. Before being splintered into Okaloosa, Washington, and Holmes Counties, Walton was some 3,000 square miles of wilderness patrolled by only a handful of law men and women. Peacekeeping was sporadic at best, but when applied, it was often by severe means. Inspired by the 2015 "Grit & Grace" production by the same name (www.gritandgrace.org), Wild, Wild Walton is Ronnie McBrayer's exploration of pioneer justice in Florida's Panhandle. Combining the elements of historical fact, oral storytelling, and narration, this is an exceptional look at the good guys and gangsters, the posses and picaroons, the devils and deputies who shaped Walton County's past - and who continue to forge its future.

Winner • Pulitzer Prize for History Winner • Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction Finalist • National Book Critics Circle Award (Nonfiction) A New York Times Notable Book of the Year Named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Washington Post, NPR, Library Journal, and gCaptain Booklist Editors’ Choice (History) Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence In this “cri de coeur about the Gulf’s environmental ruin” (New York Times), “Davis has written a beautiful homage to a neglected sea” (front page, New York Times Book Review). Hailed as a “nonfiction epic . . . in the tradition of Jared Diamond’s best-seller Collapse, and Simon Winchester’s Atlantic” (Dallas Morning News), Jack E. Davis’s The Gulf is “by turns informative, lyrical, inspiring and chilling for anyone who cares about the future of ‘America’s Sea’ ” (Wall Street Journal). Illuminating America’s political and economic relationship with the environment from the age of the conquistadors to the present, Davis demonstrates how the Gulf’s fruitful ecosystems and exceptional beauty empowered a growing nation. Filled with vivid, untold stories from the sportfish that launched Gulfside vacationing to Hollywood’s role in the country’s first offshore oil wells, this “vast and welltold story shows how we made the Gulf . . . [into] a ‘national sacrifice zone’ ” (Bill McKibben). The first and only study of its kind, The Gulf offers “a unique and illuminating history of the American Southern coast and sea as it should be written” (Edward O. Wilson).

- Now Available in Paperback - First study of the Antietam campaign from civilians' perspectives - Many never-before-published accounts of the Battle of Antietam The battle at Antietam Creek, the bloodiest day of the American Civil War, left more than 23,000 men dead, wounded, or missing. Facing the aftermath were the men, women, and children living in the village of Sharpsburg and on surrounding farms. In Too Afraid to Cry, Kathleen Ernst recounts the dramatic experiences of these Maryland citizens--stories that have never been told--and also examines the complex political web holding together Unionists and Secessionists, many of whom lived under the same roofs in this divided countryside.

Toward a Definition of Antisemitism offers new contributions by Gavin I. Langmuir to the history of antisemitism, together with some that have been published separately. The collection makes Langmuir's innovative work on the subject available to scholars in medieval and Jewish history and religious studies. The underlying question that unites the book is: what is antisemitism, where and when did it emerge, and why? After two chapters that highlight the failure of historians until recently to depict Jews and attitudes toward them fairly, the majority of the chapters are historical studies of crucial developments in the legal status of Jews and in beliefs about them during the Middle Ages. Two concluding chapters provide an overview. In the first, the author summarizes the historical developments, indicating concretely when and where antisemitism as he defines it emerged. In the second, Langmuir criticizes recent theories about prejudice and racism and develops his own general theory about the nature and dynamics of antisemitism.