Making Miami: The Historic Rise of the Magic City

Discover the City That Never Stops Reinventing Itself. Miami is more than a destination—it’s a living, breathing story of ambition, reinvention, and transformation. Making Miami takes you on a vivid journey through the city’s dramatic rise, uncovering how real estate, migration, culture, and infrastructure shaped one of the most iconic urban landscapes in the world. This is not just a history of buildings—it’s the story of a city built on dreams, risk, resilience, and constant change.

From the roaring 1920s land boom that first put Miami on the map, to its rapid transformation from a quiet southern town into a bold, modern metropolis, the city’s evolution is anything but ordinary. The rise of Art Deco South Beach during the Great Depression reveals how creativity flourished even in times of crisis. World War II turned Miami into a bustling hub for servicemen and servicewomen, while the decades that followed brought waves of change, challenge, and reinvention. The 1960s and 1970s tested the city’s strength, as economic shifts and urban tensions reshaped its identity. Then came the explosive construction boom of the 1980s—an era fueled by ambition, global investment, and a rapidly expanding skyline that would redefine the Magic City once again.

But Miami’s story is not only about growth—it’s about complexity. Making Miami explores the city’s evolving transportation and infrastructure networks, its booming tourism industry, and the environmental pressures facing its fragile ecosystem. It also dives into the deeper forces shaping the city’s identity: race, class, ethnicity, immigration, and nationality. What emerges is a rich, layered portrait of a city constantly in motion—where cultures collide, reinvention is the norm, and the future is always under construction. As noted by Paul George, Resident Historian at HistoryMiami Museum, the book is “very informative—includes subject areas that have remained underserved in terms of historiography.”

Bold. Insightful. Essential reading for understanding one of America’s most dynamic cities.

Details 

• Paperback 
• 202 pages with 65 B/W Illustrations 
• Dimension: 9in x 6in x 0.9in