| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 87.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 87.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

The Everglades: An Environmental History. By David McCally. (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1999. xxii, 215 pp. $39.95, isbn 0-8130-1648-7.)

David McCally writes a passionate biography of the Everglades with the goal of educating and motivating Florida voters to rehabilitate the south Florida wetlands. To provide the knowledge necessary properly to return some portions of the Everglades to their pre-drained complexity of custard apple groves, hammocks, sawgrass, and mangrove swamps, he uncovered the environmental and human past of this region. 1

The story begins with the geological evolution of the Everglades, specifically the Florida Platform, an ever-changing land that emerged eons ago in western Africa, joining North America following the division of Pangea during the Triassic Age. Seas covered Florida for millions of years, and deposits of limestone formed, creating a flat bed for the future Everglades. Water, the essence of the Everglades, consists of fresh and salt, ground and surface water, interacting in a complex system that began after the retreat of the Wisconsin ice age. Fire was the final crucial element in the Everglades ecosystem, usually caused by lightning, causing little damage but producing and maintaining plant communities. Eventually, the pre-drainage Everglades was born, with Lake Okeechobee, various streams, sloughs, springs, forests, and wildlife. . . .

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