Virtual History Talks: Jason Vuic

Jason Vuic, Ph.D. will discuss his book The Swamp Peddlers: How Lot Sellers, Land Scammers, and Retirees Built Modern Florida and Transformed the American Dream (UNC Press, 2021). This book is available in the Museum Store online or during Museum hours.

There is no charge for this event.
Use this link for access and wait for admission to the lecture.
CLICK HERE:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcocOypqjoqHN0606IWvgvQPzKZJPGoh8gK

Florida has long beckoned to retirees seeking to spend their golden years in the sun, but for many the American dream of owning a home there was impossible. That changed in the 1950s, when the “installment land sales industry” hawked billions of dollars of Florida residential property, sight unseen, to retiring northerners. For only $10 down and $10 a month, working-class pensioners could buy a homesite in a planned community where they could build. The result was sprawling communities like Cape Coral, Port St. Lucie, Deltona, Port Charlotte, Palm Coast, and Spring Hill, and others. Jason Vuic recounts how these communities, fifty years later, played a role in the 2008 mortgage crisis.

Originally from Punta Gorda, Jason Vuic holds a doctoral degree in history from Indiana University and resides in Texas. A former Fulbright Scholar, Vuic has authored several books, including The Yucks! Two Years in Tampa with the Losingest Team in NFL History (Simon and Schuster, 2016) and The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History (Hill and Wang, 2010). He has appeared on programs such as NPR’s Weekend Edition and C-SPAN’s Book TV.