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From its beginnings in the 1890s, Miami Beach has been a place made by visionaries and hustlers. During Prohibition, Al Capone had to muscle into its bootlegging and gambling businesses. After December 1941, when the Beach was the training ground for half a million army recruits, even the war couldn't stop the party. After a short postwar boom, the city's luck gave out. The big hotels went bankrupt, the crime rate rose, and the tourists moved on to Disney World and the Caribbean. Even after the Beach hosted both national political conventions in 1972, nobody would have imagined that this sandy backwater of run-down hotels and high crime would soon become one of the country's most important cultural centers. But in 1981, 125,000 Cubans arrived by the boatload. The empty streets of South Beach, lined with dilapidated hotels, were about to be changed irrevocably by the culture of money that moved in behind cocaine and crime. Gerald Posner takes us inside the intertwined lives of the politicians, financiers, nightclub owners, and real estate developers who have fed the Beach's unquenchable desire for wealth, flash, and hype: the German playboy who bought the entire tip of South Beach with $100 million of questionable money; the mayoral candidate who said, "If you can't take their money, drink their liquor, mess with their women, and then vote against them, you aren't cut out for politics"; the Staten Island thug who became king of the South Beach nightclubs and, when his empire unraveled, saved himself by testifying against the mob; the campaign manager who calls himself the "Prince of Darkness" and got immunity from prosecution in a fraud case by cooperating with the FBI against his colleagues; and the former Washington, D.C., developer who played hardball with city hall and became the Beach's first black hotel owner. From the mid-level coke dealers and their suitcases of cash to the questionable billions that financed the ocean-view condo towers, the Beach has seen it all. Posner's singular report tells the real story of how this small urban beach community was transformed into a world-class headquarters for American culture within a generation. It is a story built by dreamers and schemers-and a steroid-injected cautionary tale.
- Sales Rank: #571111 in Books
- Published on: 2009-10-13
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 1.41" h x 6.50" w x 9.54" l, 1.50 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 464 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Miami Beach proves a multilayered topic for Posner: investigative journalist, bestselling author (Case Closed) and denizen of America's most decadent city. Posner examines how Miami Beach turned from a quiet resort into the interconnecting site of crime, finance and politics (which one mayor described as a blood sport). The author gives a penetrating look at the sun-drenched history of South Florida, the swampland and scoundrels, rumrunners and smugglers in speedboats from Prohibition on, a major military training center during WWII and the glitzy playground of mobsters. The book comes alive from the start with an account of South Florida overwhelmed in 1980 by the influx of 125,000 Cuban refugees, followed by gritty segments on the coke wars, South Beach fun and frolic, the gay glam party life and the revitalization of key areas of the Beach. Corruption in City Hall and immoral real estate moguls conclude this thoroughly entertaining analysis of one of the original American pleasure domes and the good times that continue to roll. 8 pages of b&w photos. (Oct. 13)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"[A] thoroughly entertaining analysis of one of the original American pleasure domes and the good times that continue to roll." ---Publishers Weekly
About the Author
John Martin of ABC News says "Gerald Posner is one of the most resourceful investigators I have encountered in thirty years of journalism." Garry Wills calls Posner "a superb investigative reporter," while the Los Angeles Times dubs him "a classic-style investigative journalist." "His work is painstakingly honest journalism" concluded The Washington Post. The New York Times lauded his "exhaustive research techniques" and The Boston Globe determined Posner is "an investigative journalist whose work is marked by his thorough and meticulous research." "A resourceful investigator and skillful writer," says The Dallas Morning News.
Posner was one of the youngest attorneys (23) ever hired by the Wall Street law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore. A Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude graduate of the University of California at Berkeley (1975), he was an Honors Graduate of Hastings Law School (1978), where he served as the Associate Executive Editor for the Law Review. Of counsel to the law firm he founded, Posner and Ferrara, he is now a full time journalist and author.
He is the Chief Investigative Reporter for the Daily Beast. In the past, he was a freelance writer on investigative issues for several news magazines, and a regular contributor to NBC, the History Channel, CNN, FOX News, CBS, and MSNBC. A member of the National Advisory Board of the National Writers Union, Posner is also a member of the Authors Guild, PEN, The Committee to Protect Journalists, and Phi Beta Kappa. He lives in Miami Beach with his wife, author Trisha Posner, who works on all his projects (www.trishaposner.com).
Most helpful customer reviews
33 of 37 people found the following review helpful.
BABYLON IS A BLOCKBUSTER
By Alex Daoud
From the first page to the last, the author, Gerald Posner delivers an exciting expose of the seedy underside of the Politics, Powers and Prerogatives of the players that control Miami and Miami Beach. The author exposes the esoteric secrets that transformed this community into a modern day Babylon. Nothing is held back, from the filthy political back door deals to the chilling coke controlled economy that built these cities and are still building them.
Miami Babylon begins with the beguiling first chapter entitled "Gasoline on a Fire." Posner entices the reader with the historical narrative, revealing the horrendous ordeal of the "Mariel Boatlift" and the everlasting effect it had on the predominately elderly, predominately Jewish, totally defenseless population it destroyed. The reader is enticed by the first hand experiences and riveting revelations as they ride along with Miami Beach Homicide Detective Charlie Seraydar on the midnight shift as he routinely risks his life in trying to save South Beach. Charlie hauntingly reveals, "The first year of Mariel was like a war zone" with the crime rate rising over 600 percent and the elderly being murdered at the highest rate in the history of the city."
Miami Babylon is compulsively readable and wonderfully written.
Alex Daoud
Three-Time Mayor of Miami Beach
Author of "Sins of South Beach"
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
Newspaper-ish
By Patrick J. Goggins
Posner's book is in essence a dissertation based on a careful review of the Miami Herald's archives. The strength of this book is its parallel between the speculative boom and bust of the 1920s and the 2000s. Jorge Perez commenting on Carl Fisher? Delicious.
Its weakness is the unbalanced chronology. Halfway through the book, you've gone through Miami Beach's 20th century history. The other half focuses - way too closely, on the Beach's recent history. The lack of balance can discourage a reader, and gives the impression that Posner had the benefit of online search engines to research the Beach's recent past.
There is gossip, several interesting behind-the-scenes vignettes, and a mighty struggle to pull together the thematic parallels between Fisher and Perez. On the latter, Posner succeeds, but just barely so.
20 of 25 people found the following review helpful.
Miami Babylon Versus Fools Paradise
By david brown
While everyone is entitled to their opinions I couldn't help but noticing that early reviewers seemed to include a number of people related to the book. For example I assume the poster "Alex Daoud" is the Alex Daoud who was Mayor of Miami Beach.
That being said I think this is a well written and comprehensive overview of Miami Beach and my (independent) appraisal would be four stars. The author, Gerald Posner has written numerous books and the writing, chronological organization of the material and footnoting are all quite professional.
The book begins with early development of the Miami era, the land boom during the 1920s, the decline through the 1930s and 1940s, the growth of Miami Beach after World War Two, the influx of elderly retirees, the devastating impact of the Mariel Boatlift from Cuba,the physical decline of the city, its rediscovery by early gentrification pioneers, the evolution of South Beach culture, "Miami Vice" and the cocaine cowboys, the South Beach nightlife, the zoning battles between the older residents and developers, the condo boom etc.
The author, who apparently started interviews for the book in 2005, was somewhat beaten to the punch by another established author, Steven Gaines, who published Fools Paradise less than a year before this book. Both cover the same topic and time line; consequently there is a lot of overlap. Fools Paradise tends to go into more detail on the nightlife aspect of South Beach (i.e. modeling, the clubs, the promoters). I don't know if Gerald Posner re-focused Miami Babylon after publication of the earlier book. However Miami Babylon has a greater emphasis on the real estate redevelopment and zoning aspects. I note that one reviewer gave only one star on the basis that it covered "boring" real estate deals of no interest to that reader. I think that is unfair relative to the total scope of the book but it is undeniable that real estate aspects have a heavy weighting.
I can recommend both books to readers interested in the subject of Miami Beach/South Beach. If choosing only one to read I would be guided by your interest in nightlife versus re-development.
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