South Florida summons tropical vacationland images–gleaming beaches, exotic foods, colorful costumes, and grand hotels. Yet beyond this facade teems a rich folklife that is the subject of this alluring book.

The three collaborating authors present south Florida folklife from the 1930s to the present in four parts: the Everglades and Gulf Coast, the Miami megalopolis, the Keys, and the seasonal residents and tourists.

Together, these create a mosaic of contrasts. South Florida embraces extravagant wealth and heartbreaking poverty, constant evolution and solid tradition, tropical peace and devastating storms, settled generations and the newest Americans. It is a folk region identified not by physical or political boundaries, but by its hot, sultry climate and the many people who interact with the land and with one another.

South Florida Folklife explores the area for the first time from a folklorist’s perspective and firmly establishes it as a microcosm of the United States, an enticing example of the human diversity that characterizes life in this country.