Product Description
Suburban Xanadu is a new look at the rise of the casino industry, one of the most remarkable developments in late 20th century America. Within a generation, casinos went from near-outlaw businesses to thriving, state-sanctioned ones. Suburban Xanadu clearly and emphatically tells the story of how this happened, doing, in the words of casino mogul Steve Wynn, a “great job” of explaining casinos’ popularity.. This isn’t the casino history you’ve seen on TV. For too long, academic historians have shied away from seriously investigating the social, cultural, and political forces that created today’s casino industry. Finally, someone has crafted an artful, accessible historical analysis of the rise and popularity… More >>
Suburban Xanadu: The Casino Resort on the Las Vegas Strip and Beyond
Suburban Xanadu: The Casino Resort on the Las Vegas Strip and Beyond
5 Comments
Tags: Beyond, Casino, Resort, Strip, Suburban, Vegas, XanaduPosted 09 Apr 2010 in General
Don’t be fooled. This is a purely pedantic and priggish book about Las Vegas. Not worth your time. Rating: 1 / 5
Not that great. A far better read is “Sun, Sin And Suburbia: An Essential History Of Modern Las Vegas” by Geoff Schumacher.
Rating: 1 / 5
This book tells a real story of how casinos got popular. I’m a UNLV student and I hear that the author teaches a class in casino history. Reading this book, it’s obvious that he knows what he is talking about. This was very informative and I would highly recommend it for anyone who wants to learn more about casinos and Las Vegas. Rating: 5 / 5
When I first saw this book, I wondered–was there really an interesting history of casinos? I usually read about weightier historical topics (Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel, for instance), but every time I go to Vegas I’m struck by how the entire place seemed to have been built in the last five years.
So, seeing the generally positive reviews (and checking out the author’s website which is quite interesting), I ordered a copy. I was expecting a fairly dense read–the author is a professional historian–but I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to get into.
There is a lot of great information about Vegas history in here, as well as Atlantic City, and a little on Indian casinos and riverboats too. I’d seen the movie Bugsy, but I had no idea that he wasn’t the real founder of the Strip. Thanks to this book, I know now.
The author must have had a lot of fun writing this; even though it’s a pretty serious book, there are some great one-liners in there. I actually laughed a few times.
The more I read, the more I realized there is to this topic, and I wish that the author had written more about Reno, for example, but for starters, this is a great introduction to the history of casinos, and a fun read. For anyone who’s taken the trip to Vegas and wondered about where it came from, it’s a welcome addition to your library. Rating: 5 / 5
Any man that can write a book with a bright pink cover must be very secure in his masculinity.
Dr. Schwartz is also very secure in his knowledge of the “real” history of gambling, legalized or otherwise. Just when you think you know the truth, as it has been told for generations, here comes a maverick historian to turn your conceptions upside-down.
Seriously, does anyone have any respect for Senator McCarran before they read about his valiant battle to keep Nevada’s peculiar peculiarity as peacefully peculiar as possible, without the wretched government interfering?
And would the world’s FOREMOST AUTHORITY on gambling, Dr. William Eadington, make Dr. David Schwartz’s book required reading for his class if it were not one of the leading texts on the subject?
His book is a true delight to read, and, as it is broken up into bite-sized sections with headings such as “The Californication of the casino resort” and “Requiem for a bootlegger”, you can read a few pages and then ponder or nap without the guilt associated with reading only halfway through a chapter.
How’s that for a review that sounds like it was poured straight from the fount of the commonfolk! Normal people DO read this kind of stuff too, so don’t be afraid to crack it open!
Rating: 5 / 5