Download or read book Sun Sin Suburbia written by Geoff Schumacher and published by University of Nevada Press. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than forty million visitors per year travel to Sin City to visit the gambling mecca of the world. But gambling is only one part of the city’s story. In this carefully documented history, Geoff Schumacher tracks the rise of Las Vegas, including its vital role during World War II; the rise of the Strip in the 1950s; the explosive growth of the 1990s; and the colossal collapse triggered by the real estate bust and economic crisis of the mid-2000s. Schumacher surveys the history of the iconic casinos, debunking myths and highlighting key players such as Howard Hughes, Kirk Kerkorian, and Steve Wynn. Schumacher’s history also profiles the Las Vegas where more than two million people live. He explores the neighborhoods sprawling beyond the Strip’s neon gleam and uncovers a diverse community offering much more than table games, lounge acts, and organized crime. Schumacher discusses contemporary Las Vegas, charting its course from the nation’s fastest-growing metropolis to one of the Great Recession’s most battered victims. Sun, Sin & Suburbia will appeal to tourists looking to understand more than the glitz and glitter of Las Vegas and to newcomers who want to learn about their new hometown. It will also be an essential addition to any longtime Nevadan’s library of local history. First published in 2012 by Stephens Press, this paperback edition is now available from the University of Nevada Press.
Download or read book Not a Drop to Drink written by Ken Midkiff and published by New World Library. This book was released on 2010-10-04 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Water. We can’t live without it. Not a Drop to Drink sounds the alarm, detailing the current state of emergency facing the U.S. water supply. From the parched High Plains to corporate boardrooms, Ken Midkiff explores water wars, privatization, American agriculture, and global warming. And what we can do to get a glass of water.
Download or read book Howard Hughes written by Geoff Schumacher and published by University of Nevada Press. This book was released on 2020-03-11 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This newly revised and expanded edition of Howard Hughes chronicles the life and legacies of one of the most intriguing and accomplished Americans of the twentieth century. Hughes, born into wealth thanks to his father’s innovative drill bit that transformed the oil industry, put his inheritance to work in multiple ways, from producing big-budget Hollywood movies to building the world’s fastest and largest airplanes. Hughes set air speed records and traveled around the world in record time, earning ticker-tape parades in three cities in 1938. Later, he moved to Las Vegas and invested heavily in casinos. He bought seven resorts, in each case helping to loosen organized crime’s grip on Nevada’s lifeblood industry. Although the public viewed Hughes as a heroic and independent-minded trailblazer, behind closed doors he suffered from germophobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and an addiction to painkillers. He became paranoid and reclusive, surrounding himself with a small cadre of loyal caretakers. As executives battled each other over his empire, Hughes’ physical and mental health deteriorated to the point where he lost control of his business affairs. This second edition includes more insider details on Hughes’ personal interactions with actresses, journalists, and employees. New chapters provide insights into Hughes’s involvement with the mob, his ownership and struggles as the majority shareholder of TWA and the wide-ranging activities of Hughes Aircraft Company, Hughes’s critical role in the Glomar Explorer CIA project (a deep-sea drillship platform built to recover the Soviet submarine K-129), and more. Based on in-depth interviews with individuals who knew and worked with Hughes, this fascinating biography provides a colorful and comprehensive look at Hughes—from his life and career to his final years and lasting influence. This penetrating depiction of the man behind the curtain demonstrates Hughes’s legacy, and enduring impact on popular culture.
Download or read book Stardust International Raceway written by Randall Cannon and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2018-10-08 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Professional motorsports came to Las Vegas in the mid-1950s at a bankrupt horse track swarmed by gamblers--and soon became enmeshed with the government and organized crime. By 1965, the Vegas racing game moved from makeshift facilities to Stardust International Raceway, constructed with real grandstands, sanitary facilities and air-conditioned timing towers. Stardust would host the biggest racing names of the era--Mario Andretti, Parnelli Jones, John Surtees, Mark Donohue, Bobby Unser, Dan Gurney and Don Garlits among them. Established by a notorious racketeer, the track stood at the confluence of shadowy elements--wiretaps, casino skimming, Howard Hughes, and the beginnings of Watergate. The author traces the Stardust's colorful history through the auto racing monthlies, national newspapers, extensive interviews and the files of the FBI.
Download or read book Historic Sites and Landmarks That Shaped America 2 volumes written by Mitchell Newton-Matza and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2016-09-06 with total page 858 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring the significance of places that built our cultural past, this guide is a lens into historical sites spanning the entire history of the United States, from Acoma Pueblo to Ground Zero. Historic Sites and Landmarks That Shaped America: From Acoma Pueblo to Ground Zero encompasses more than 200 sites from the earliest settlements to the present, covering a wide variety of locations. It includes concise yet detailed entries on each landmark that explain its importance to the nation. With entries arranged alphabetically according to the name of the site and the state in which it resides, this work covers both obscure and famous landmarks to demonstrate how a nation can grow and change with the creation or discovery of important places. The volume explores the ways different cultures viewed, revered, or even vilified these sites. It also examines why people remember such places more than others. Accessible to both novice and expert readers, this well-researched guide will appeal to anyone from high school students to general adult readers.
Download or read book Las Vegas written by Lawrence J. Mullen and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2007 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Las Vegas: Media and Myth uses interviews with a variety of individuals to explore life in the fabled American city. With the belief that the media play an essential role in the creation of a sense of community in this transient town, author Lawrence J. Mullen speaks with people who work in the local media industries to get their perspectives about how newspaper, radio, television, and related media help make Las Vegas a livable community.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Politics of the American West written by Steven L. Danver and published by CQ Press. This book was released on 2013-04-25 with total page 825 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Encyclopedia of Politics in the American West is an A to Z reference work on the political development of one of America’s most politically distinct, not to mention its fastest growing, region. This work will cover not only the significant events and actors of Western politics, but also deal with key institutional, historical, environmental, and sociopolitical themes and concepts that are important to more fully understanding the politics of the West over the last century.
Download or read book The Routledge Companion to Contemporary Architectural History written by Duanfang Lu and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-07-31 with total page 509 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Companion to Contemporary Architectural History offers a comprehensive and up-to-date knowledge report on recent developments in architectural production and research. Divided into three parts – Practices, Interrogations, and Innovations – this book charts diversity, criticality, and creativity in architectural interventions to meet challenges and enact changes in different parts of the world through featured exemplars and fresh theoretical orientations. The collection features 29 chapters written by leading architectural scholars and highlights the reciprocity between the historical and the contemporary, research and practice, and disciplinary and professional knowledge. Providing an essential map for navigating the complex currents of contemporary architecture, the Companion will interest students, academics, and practitioners who wish to bolster their understanding of built environments.
Download or read book Cities and Nature written by Lisa Benton-Short and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-07-04 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cities and Nature illustrates how the city is part of the environment, and how it is subject to environmental constraints and opportunities. The city has been treated in geographical writings as only a social phenomena, and at the same time, environmental scientists have tended to ignore the urban. This book reconnects the science and social science through the examination of the urban. It critiques the dominant academic discourse which ignores the environmental base of urban life and living, and discusses the urban natural environment and how this is subjected to social influences. The book is organized around three central themes: urban environment in historical context issues in urban-nature relations realigning urban-nature relations. Ideas such as pollution as a physical environmental fact, often created or impacted by economic, cultural and political changes are discussed, as well as viewing pollution as a social act: consuming patterns of everyday activities - driving, showering, shopping, eating - and how this has an environmental impact. The authors reintroduce a social science perspective in examining urban nature, the city and its physical environment. Cities and Nature clearly illustrates the physical and social elements of the urban environment and shows how these are important to examining the city. It includes further reading and boxed case studies on Bangladesh, Paris, Delhi, Rome, Cubatao, Thailand, Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans and Toronto. This book would be an asset to students and researchers in environmental studies, urban studies and planning.
Download or read book Grand Canyon to Hearst Ranch written by Elizabeth Austin and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-02-21 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finalist for the 2020 WILLA Literary Award, Creative Nonfiction Inspired by her first breathtaking trip in the Grand Canyon, Harriet Hunt Burgess dedicated her life to saving land for future generations. Beginning in the 1970s, she persevered through four decades—overcoming daunting obstacles and taking extraordinary risks—to conserve hundreds of thousands of acres of land in the American West.Without Burgess, iconic and irreplaceable landscapes like the Lake Tahoe region and the California coast would be much different today. As Harriet Burgess once explained, “The land we save is our legacy. It’s what we give to our children.” The Grand Canyon was the catalyst for Harriet’s conservation mission and the spark for Grand Canyon to Hearst Ranch. Author Elizabeth Austin has interwoven her own exhilarating and life-changing dory trip through the depths of the Grand Canyon with the compelling story of Harriet’s early life and five of her most significant conservation achievements as founder-president of the American Land Conservancy.
Download or read book The Themed Space written by Scott A. Lukas and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2007 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Themed Space: Locating Culture, Nation and Self is the first edited collection focused on the subject of the themed space. Twelve authors address a range of themed spaces, including restaurants, casinos, theme parks and other spaces like airports and virtual reality ones. The text is organized into four sections-theming as authenticity, theming as nation, theming as person and theming as mind.
Download or read book Erving Manuel Goffman written by Dmitri N. Shalin and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-12-03 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Erving Goffman is the most cited American sociologist. There is no shortage of studies exploring Goffman’s scholarship but no extant biography of Erving Goffman. The chief reason is that a man who looked behind the facades people erect to protect their private selves, zealously guarded his own backstage. This book is the first comprehensive biography of Goffman, an intellectual of Russian-Jewish descent, who turned the “Potemkin village” trope into a powerful research program. The present study shows how key turns in Goffman’s career reflected dramatic events in his family and personal history. It is based on the materials gathered in the Erving Goffman Archives, a repository curated by the author who has been collecting documents and conducting interviews with Goffman’s relatives, colleagues, and friends. The archival work turned up documents which improve our understanding of Goffman the scholar, the teacher, and the man. The approach adopted in this investigation sheds new light on Goffman’s scholarship which has had an enormous and continuous impact across the social sciences and humanities.
Download or read book Explorer s Guide Las Vegas A Great Destination written by Crystal Wood and published by The Countryman Press. This book was released on 2011-09-14 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where can you see the Eiffel Tower, Caesar's centurions, the Sphinx, and an active volcano all on the same boulevard? Las Vegas, of course! This iconic city attracts more than 40 million visitors each year, and this definitive guide covers every aspect of its appeal. With a checkered history and a passion for fun, Las Vegas changes more rapidly than any other city in the United States, and it draws business and pleasure travelers from all over the world, offering them every luxury and amusement imaginable. The authors, longtime Las Vegas residents, strive to make sure every visitor has the vacation experience he or she is looking for. In their comprehensive guide you’ll get the insider’s scoop on the best restaurants and clubs; what to see and do both on and off the Strip; an overview of popular shows along with tips on booking tickets; and valuable info on the area’s many outdoor recreation options.
Download or read book Environmental Restoration and Design for Recreation and Ecotourism written by Robert L. France and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2011-11-16 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A wetland center in London, parks in downtown San Francisco, a wildlife sanctuary in Arcata, and a wetlands park on the outskirts of Las Vegas—what do these urban and suburban locations have in common? They are leading examples of a new restoration design approach that is squarely placed at the interface of nature and culture. This multidisciplinary paradigm bridges the gap between an ecological approach preoccupied with returning damaged landscapes to an imagined original state and a landscape design approach concerned with creating a place for people to reinhabit. Environmental Restoration and Design for Recreation and Ecotourism is the first book to provide a detailed examination of the entire process of restoring damaged or abandoned landscapes to benefit both nature and people, specifically for the purposes of recreation and ecotourism. With a focus on history, planning, methodology, design, and construction, it explores five case studies of successful regenerative landscape design projects and gives readers an inside look at the evolution of design projects. Two of the cases offer a particularly comprehensive review of award-winning projects: the reparation of the degraded Las Vegas Wash into Clark County Wetlands Park and the transformation of the abandoned Barn Elms Reservoirs into the London Wetland Centre. Supported by extensive photographs, tables, maps, sketches, and schematics, these case studies trace how ideas are first conceived and then adopted, transformed, or even abandoned along the way. Each case study also includes a questions-and-answers discussion with designers and managers. Emphasizing the need for interdisciplinary cooperation, the book presents lessons learned from some of the most innovative projects in regenerative landscape design.
Download or read book San Diego Magazine written by and published by . This book was released on 2005-05 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: San Diego Magazine gives readers the insider information they need to experience San Diego-from the best places to dine and travel to the politics and people that shape the region. This is the magazine for San Diegans with a need to know.
Download or read book Gangsterland written by Tod Goldberg and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2014-08-18 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[An] exciting and darkly funny crime novel." —C. Moon Read, Las Vegas Weekly, 1 of Our 20 Favorite Books of the Past Twenty Years Sal Cupertine is a legendary hit man for the Chicago Mafia, known for his ability to get in and out of a crime without a trace. Until now, that is. His first–ever mistake forces Sal to botch an assassination, killing three undercover FBI agents in the process. This puts too much heat on Sal, and he knows this botched job will be his death sentence to the Mafia. So he agrees to their radical idea to save his own skin. A few surgeries and some intensive training later, and Sal Cupertine is gone, disappeared into the identity of Rabbi David Cohen. Leading his growing congregation in Las Vegas, overseeing the population and the temple and the new cemetery, Rabbi Cohen feels his wicked past slipping away from him, surprising even himself as he spouts quotes from the Torah or the Old Testament. Yet, as it turns out, the Mafia isn't quite done with him yet. Soon the new cemetery is being used as both a money and body–laundering scheme for the Chicago family. And that rogue FBI agent on his trail, seeking vengeance for the murder of his three fellow agents, isn't going to let Sal fade so easily into the desert. Gangsterland is the wickedly dark and funny new novel by a writer at the height of his power—a morality tale set in a desert landscape as ruthless and barren as those who inhabit it.
Download or read book Winner Takes All written by Christina Binkley and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2018-11-06 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and culture critic Christina Binkley comes an updated edition of her New York Times bestselling account of sex, drugs, and the rise of Las Vegas. With a new prologue on the rise and fall of Steve Wynn. The Strip. Home to some of the world's grandest, flashiest, and most lucrative casino resorts, Las Vegas, with its multitude of attractions, draws millions of tourists from around the world every year. But Sin City hasn't always been booming: modern Vegas exists largely thanks to the extraordinary vision, and remarkable hubris, of three competing business moguls: Kirk Kerkorian, Dr. Gary Loveman, and Steve Wynn. And in the wake of #MeToo revelations, not all empires survive. Having had personal access to all three tycoons, Binkley explains how their audacious efforts to reach the top-and to top one another-shaped the city as it stands. She takes us inside their grandest schemes, their riskiest deals, and the personalities that drove them to their greatest successes, and their most painful defeats. In this updated edition, she reveals the inside story of how Steve Wynn, the winner who took all, ultimately lost everything-twice. Sharp, insightful, and revealing, Winner Takes All is the gripping story of how billions of dollars and the unparalleled drive for power turned dreams into larger-than-life reality. "It's a great drama on the greatest stage. . . Wynn, Kerkorian, and Loveman represent three opposing business personalities, three styles of achieving success. On the Vegas Strip, they're pitted against one another like gladiators, and we've got front-row seats. Kapow!" - bestselling author Po Bronson
