Recently released September 2023, La Florida presents a well-researched recount of colonial Florida. Counter to the more well known history, in La Florida, Professor Kevin Kokomoor explores a Spanish thread to early American history that is unfamiliar, or rather, unknown to most Americans. The book uncovers a Spanish influence, not English, which drove America’s early history or as Kokomoor suggests as “the country’s founding mythology.”
La Florida is an epic retelling of a pivotal period in the history of the region. The level of research is impeccable and the characters – especially the Florida-dwelling Native Americans – are wonderfully realized, making this a highly interesting and absorbing work of historical fiction.
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About the Book:
La Florida challenges the general assumption that whatever is important or interesting about this country is a product of its English past. Dig deeper into Hispanic and Caribbean history, and how important happenings elsewhere in the Spanish colonial world influenced the discovery and colonization of the American Southeast. Follow Spanish sailors discovering the edges of a new continent and greedy, violent conquistadors quickly moving in to find riches, along with Catholic missionaries on their search for religious converts. Learn how Spanish colonialism in Florida sparked the British’s plans for colonization of the continent and influenced some of the most enduring traditions of the larger Southeast.
About Prof. Kokomoor:
Kevin Kokomoor is a fourth generation Floridian who grew up in the Tampa Bay area. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s Degrees in History at the University of South Florida and his Doctorate in Early American History at Florida State University. His first academic position after graduate school was at Coastal Carolina University in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where he is currently employed.
In addition to La Florida, he has also authored several articles in academic journals, including Journal of Southern History, Georgia Historical Quarterly, Florida Historical Quarterly, Journal of Sport History, and Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. He won the Thompson Award for the best article published in Florida Historical Quarterly in 2009 and the E. Merton Coulter Award for the best article published in Georgia Historical Quarterly in 2013. In 2017 he was a Howard H. Peckham Fellow of Revolutionary America at the Clements Library at the University of Michigan. Other sources of support include the American Philosophical Society, the David Library of the American Revolution, Emory University, and the University of Florida.