Las Vegas: An Unconventional History
Coffee-table format proves advantageous to this colorful, far-ranging tome on America's capital of civilized sin. Ferrari and Ives start at the beginning of modern Las Vegas, describing the city's hardscrabble origins and the huge local tourism market that changes in American leisure, the proximity of spectacular Hoover Dam, and the legal status of gambling fostered in the early twentieth century. The many illustrations include plenty of vintage poolside shots and examples of letterhead stationery and other accoutrements of the Flamingo, the big casino built by mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel that sparked the building boom of plush gambling houses. Speaking of Bugsy, one whole chapter deals with the mobster involvement for which Vegas is nearly as famous as for gambling. Among tangential phenomena addressed are marriage mills, neon-infused architecture, the Rat Pack, and the civic-value triumvirate of "sin, gin, and din." A chapter on Vegas' commonalities with the nuclear industry provides little-known perspective on the Vegas mind-set, and the epilogue addresses the city's future. Ferrari and Ives nicely capture the uniqueness of a unique place.Mike TribbyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved