Virtual History Talks: Steven Noll

Steven Noll, Ph.D. will discuss his book Ditch of Dreams: The Cross-Florida Barge Canal and the Struggle for Florida’s Future (University Press of Florida, 2015). 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/tZcqc-yhrT8uGtC9oCcA_HBvxKm2qiMa1W6a

For centuries, men dreamed of cutting a canal across the Florida peninsula, despite enormous technological and financial challenges. Heedless of environmental concerns, water transportation advocates lobbied the federal government to connect the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico to place Florida at the very center of American commerce and prosperity. Steven Noll will trace the twists and turns of the project through the years. The story of the Cross Florida Barge Canal, crucial to twentieth-century Florida history, is complex, featuring competing interests amidst the changing political landscape of modern Florida. The history of the canal is not just a story of Florida’s past, but a compelling lesson for its future.

Steve Noll is a master lecturer in the history department of the University of Florida. He taught special education in the public schools of Alachua County for 28 years before moving full-time to UF in 2004. Noll is also the author of Feeble-Minded in Our Midst: Institutions for the Mentally Retarded in the South, 1900-1940 (UNC Press, 2009).