"The story behind how city officials marketed St. Petersburg to build it into a vacation hotspot"--

St. Petersburg was the first American city to hire a public relations director and the first to initiate a successful advertising program. More than almost any other Florida city, St. Petersburg relied on a constant message in postcards, newspaper editorials, print ads and broadcast commercials to market itself as the nation's playground. By the early 1900s, this sleepy fishing village had become the tourist destination of choice for thousands of winter-weary northerners. Early enthusiasts claimed the sun-filled peninsula was "the southern garden of perpetual well-being." Their methods ranged from serious academic papers to outrageous bathing suit inspections and "world record" schemes. Join" "historian Nevin D. Sitler as he presents an entertaining look at the men who crafted the promotion of paradise..

Step onto the field and bear witness to baseball's outsized impact on Florida's Sunshine City.

A New York Times Bestseller Oh, Florida! That name. That combination of sounds. Three simple syllables, and yet packing so many mixed messages. To some people, it’s a paradise. To others, it’s a punch line. As Oh, Florida! shows, it’s both of these and, more important, it’s a Petri dish, producing trends that end up influencing the rest of the country. Without Florida there would be no NASCAR, no Bettie Page pinups, no Glenn Beck radio rants, no USA Today, no “Stand Your Ground,” . . . you get the idea. To outsiders, Florida seems baffling. It’s a state where the voters went for Barack Obama twice, yet elected a Tea Party candidate as governor. Florida is touted as a carefree paradise, yet it’s also known for its perils-alligators, sinkholes, pythons, hurricanes, and sharks, to name a few. It attracts 90 million visitors a year, some drawn by its impressive natural beauty, others bewitched by its manmade fantasies. Oh, Florida! explores those contradictions and shows how they fit together to make this the most interesting state. It is the first book to explore the reasons why Florida is so wild and weird-and why that’s okay. Florida couldn’t be Florida without that sense of the unpredictable, unexpected, and unusual lurking behind every palm tree. But there is far more to Florida than its sideshow freakiness. Oh, Florida! explains how Florida secretly, subtly influences all the other states in the Union, both for good and for ill.

A History of American State and Local Economic Development relates the history of American local and state economic development from 1790 to 2000. This multi-variable, multi-disciplinary history employs a bottom-up policy-making systems approach while exploring the three eras of economic development.

ABSTRACT: For over a century Florida's Tampa Bay area has been extolled for its abundant seashores and moderate climate. The success of early twentieth-century St. Petersburg as a tourist destination was due to a consistent method of self-promotion highlighting the natural and physical features of peninsular Pinellas County. Warmed by balmy Tampa Bay breezes, St. Petersburg had been dubbed the "Health City." This tiny 1890 coastal town of less than three hundred inhabitants, now blessed with a slogan, new train tracks, and a railway pier, was an ideal setting for tourism. By 1902, boosters declared St. Petersburg a city second to none. Over the next half-century -- from the Building Boom to the Baby Boom --St. Petersburg exploded. Ranked twenty-seventh nationally in 1940, prewar Sunshine State was the South's least-populated state, but boosters like John Lodwick, "Tin-Canners," and World War II brought many changes, few of which escaped St. Petersburg. This thesis examines elements of St. Petersburg that almost every historian has emphasized, but few have seriously analyzed: boosterism and tourism. More than almost any other Florida city, St. Petersburg relied upon an endlessly repeated message in postcards, newspapers editorials, print advertisements, and radio/television commercials. The city marketed itself as the nation's playground, a southern garden of perpetual well-being. That St. Petersburg was the first American city to hire a public relations director and the first to initiate a successful advertising budget speaks to the magnitude of this message. In the late 1940s, while northern newspaper subscribers were teased with wintertime ads sending "Warm Wishes from Sunny St. Pete," a series of city-funded films were released. These quasi-documentaries, shown in countless lodges and auditoriums, portrayed the "Sunshine City" as the city of fun and sun. Without reserve, the films marketed St. Petersburg as the ideal destination for the nation's soon-to-be senior citizens. Through analysis of news media coupled with interviews, personal memoirs, and interdisciplinary studies, this thesis explores a recurring marketing theme and more importantly, places it within the context of Florida's tourism history and the city's goal of Selling St. Petersburg.

At long last, Sarah Britton, called the “queen bee of the health blogs” by Bon Appétit, reveals 100 gorgeous, all-new plant-based recipes in her debut cookbook, inspired by her wildly popular blog. Every month, half a million readers—vegetarians, vegans, paleo followers, and gluten-free gourmets alike—flock to Sarah’s adaptable and accessible recipes that make powerfully healthy ingredients simply irresistible. My New Roots is the ultimate guide to revitalizing one’s health and palate, one delicious recipe at a time: no fad diets or gimmicks here. Whether readers are newcomers to natural foods or are already devotees, they will discover how easy it is to eat healthfully and happily when whole foods and plants are at the center of every plate.