Key West on the Edge: Inventing the Conch Republic - Hardcover

Robert Kerstein is professor of government at the University of Tampa and the author of Politics and Growth in Twentieth-Century Tampa.

“Key West is an island steeped in lore, from Hemingway to Fantasy Fest, but behind the façade of Margaritaville lie buried tensions and conflicts in need of examination. Kerstein provides a much-needed dose of reality in the form of a masterfully researched study of the island’s tourism industry, from the shadowy power brokers who pull the strings to the underpaid workers who serve the drinks. From seedy bars to trendy discos, Kerstein has managed to capture the improbable mixture of this strange island, while offering a cautionary tale of tourism run amok.”—Robert Lee Irby, author of 7,000 Clams

 “An exemplary study and a cautionary tale that should be read by everyone interested in the suicidal course of a society driven by an irrational and self-destructive compulsion to erase differences in the pursuit of the almighty dollar.”—Brewster Chamberlin, author of Mario Sanchez: Once Upon a Way of Life

 “Refreshingly accurate account of how Key West invented the Conch Republic tourist economy from the ruins of the closed military complex. Highly recommended.”—Tom Hambright, Monroe County Historian

“For anyone who has visited Key West or hopes to do so one day, Bob Kerstein provides a splendid history of the larger-than-life people and powerful social forces that shaped this unique American city into what it is today. He chronicles the decades-long struggle and mixed success of Key West’s efforts to avoid the homogenization that seems inevitably to accompany large-scale tourism.”—Scott Keeter, Pew Research Center

“Bob Kerstein’s urban history of the ‘Conch Republic’ charts the evolution of Key West’s quirky, nonconformist charm but also teases out long-running conflicts between its embrace of tourism and defense of authenticity. Alongside fascinating chronicles of the characters and capers that have made this city unique, Key West on the Edge presents a sobering consideration of the ways larger economic forces create tensions between the global and local, modernity and heritage, the power of the market and the power of place.”—Rosemary Jann, George Mason University