UF lecturer wins state history award

June 1, 2010

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Steven Noll, senior lecturer in the University of Florida Department of History, and Dave Tegeder, associate professor of history at Santa Fe College, have been awarded the Florida Historical Society’s 2010 Rembert Patrick Award for their book, “Ditch of Dreams: The Cross Florida Barge Canal and the Struggle for Florida’s Future.”

Published by the University of Florida Press, “Ditch of Dreams” traces the longstanding effort to build a canal across Florida. Published in 2009, the book has received numerous accolades. Cynthia Barnett, author of “Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S.,” said the book “offers timeless lessons about pork-barrel politics and the power of citizen-environmentalism. Most important, it reminds us that today’s economic coup may well be tomorrow’s environmental crisis.”

Noted historian Frederick Rowe Davis said the book, “ties the exploitation of the Ocklawaha to Florida history across nearly two centuries. Moreover, they (the authors) bring to life the personalities of canal supporters and detractors, including such dynamic individuals as Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Claude Pepper and Marjorie Harris Carr.”

The award was named in honor of the late Rembert W. Patrick, longtime UF history professor and author of the acclaimed book “Florida Under Five Flags” and others.

Noll and Tegeder received the award at the society’s annual meeting in St. Augustine on May 27. The Florida Historical Society was founded in 1856.

For additional information contact the University Press of Florida, at 352-392-1351. Visit the book’s website at: http://www.upf.com/book.asp?id=NOLLX001.