Customer Reviews

Green Empire: The St. Joe Company and the Remaking of Florida's Panhandle

5 star:		(4)
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3 star:		(1)
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The authors of Green Empire have done the people of the Florida Panhandle a great service. This thoughful and engaging book offers insights about one of Florida's most powerful companies--the St. Joe Company--and the way developers achieve their ends. The authors have clearly done their research. The book is filled with interesting facts about the history of the development of northwest Florida, beginning at the turn of the century. The book also provides a look at the influencial people--Alfred DuPont and Ed Ball, in particular--behind this development. Anyone who has witnessed an area's natural beauty give way to urbanization and development will appreciate the work the authors put into this book to shed light on how this happens. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

If you're interested in North Florida history and politics, then this is the best recent book on such matters. As a North Floridian and history fan for 33 years, even I learned a lot about such matters. Well written, researched and documented.

As an investor in residential rental property primarily in Destin, Florida I wanted to learn about the explosive growth in the Panama City Beach area. My research led me to a web site of West Bay County's growth plans and the tremendous influence of St Joe on the entire area. I wanted to learn more and was delighted to see that the Green Empire had recently been published. The book is extremely well written, and provides a balanced approach in addressing the economic, environmental and political issues involved in developing this area. The book is a textbook on environmental planning, political processes and macro econonomic issues, but a real "page turner" as well. It is in part a detective story as well as a primer for those interested in learning more about and participating in the dynamic growth of this new Florida frontier.

I spent most of my childhood between the neat rows of slash pines planted by the St. Joe paper company. You couldn't wander through a patch of woods that they didn't own. After over a decade away from the Florida Panhandle I wandered into a local bookstore and found this book. I had to buy it and it exceeded my expectations. Well researched, balanced and a great read. This is the Cadillac Desert of the Florida Panhandle.

After reading these great reviews on Green Empire I decided to purchase the book and develop an understanding of the St Joe history. While the authors have an incredible amount of history and facts ammassed there did not seem to be a flow to the "story". Several instances of jumping around back and forth with facts made this more of a school book than an enjoyable read. Should you want facts this is great, a book to curl up with...no.