The Grit Beneath the Glitter

The Grit Beneath the Glitter PDF

Author: Hal Rothman

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2002-03-15

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 9780520205291

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An anthology of essays and first-person narratives offers a glimpse of the people and institutions that support the Las Vegas gaming industry.

The Grit Beneath the Glitter

The Grit Beneath the Glitter PDF

Author: Hal Rothman

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 9780520205291

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An anthology of essays and first-person narratives offers a glimpse of the people and institutions that support the Las Vegas gaming industry.

Casino Women

Casino Women PDF

Author: Susan Chandler

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2011-09

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 080146269X

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Based on extended interviews with maids, cocktail waitresses, cooks, laundry workers, dealers, pit bosses, and vice presidents, Casino Women is a pioneering look at the female face of corporate gaming.

Reopening the American West

Reopening the American West PDF

Author: Hal K. Rothman

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2016-12-15

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 0816536848

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Take a good look at the American West and you'll see that the frontier is undergoing constant changes—not only changes made to the land but also changes in attitudes about the land held by the people who live there. In this book Mike Davis, Stephen Pyne, William deBuys, Donald Worster, Dan Flores, and others re-examine the relationship between people and the environment in the American West over five hundred years, from the legacy of Coronado's search for the Cities of Gold to the social costs of tourism and gaming inflicted by modern adventurers. By exploring places in the West, aspects of the region's past, and ways of understanding some of its pressing issues, the authors foster a better understanding of how people interact and perceive land. Reopening the American West takes a fresh approach to the history of the region, examining the premises of earlier scholars as well as those who have redefined the study of the West over the past two decades. It combines provocative essays with insightful analyses to address issues that are representative of the West in the twentieth century—multiculturalism, water issues, resource exploitation—and to reopen the West for all readers interested in new ways of looking at its wide-open spaces. Contents: Places Dreams of Earth, William deBuys Environmentalism and Multiculturalism, Dan L. Flores Pyre on the Mountain, Stephen J. Pyne Las Vegas Versus Nature, Mike Davis Pasts The Legacy of John Wesley Powell, Donald Worster Pokey’s Paradox: Tourism and Transformation on the Western Navajo Reservation, Hal K. Rothman Negotiating National Identity: Western Tourism and "See American First," Marguerite Schaffer Understanding Place Humanists at the Headgates, Helen Ingram Tapping the Rockies: Resource Exploitation and Conservation in the Intermountain West, Char Miller The Meaning of Place: Reimagining Community in a Changing West, Robert Gottlieb

Everyday Las Vegas

Everyday Las Vegas PDF

Author: Rex J. Rowley

Publisher: University of Nevada Press

Published: 2013-04-01

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 0874179068

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Every year, more than thirty-five million people from all over the world visit Las Vegas; only two million call the city home. Everyday Las Vegas takes a close look at the lives of those who live in a place the rest of the world considers exotic, even decadent. Using broad research, including interviews with more than one hundred Las Vegans, Rex Rowley--who grew up in Las Vegas--examines everyday life in a place that markets itself as an escape from mundane reality. Rowley considers such topics as why people move to Las Vegas, the nature of their work and personal lives, the impact of growth and rapid change, and interaction with the overwhelmingly touristic side of the city. He also considers the benefits and perils of living in a nonstop twenty-four-hour city rich in entertainment options and easy access to gambling, drugs, and other addictions. His examination includes the previously unstudied role of neighborhood casinos patronized by locals rather than tourists and the impact that a very mobile population has on schools, churches, and community life. Rowley considers the very different ways people perceive a place as insiders or outsiders, a dichotomy that arises when tourism is a mainstay of the local economy. His work offers insights into what Las Vegas can teach us about other cities and American culture in general. It also contributes to our understanding of how people relate to places and how the personality of a place influences the lives of people who live there.

Stigma Cities

Stigma Cities PDF

Author: Jonathan Foster

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2018-09-27

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 0806162252

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Growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, a city that he loved, Jonathan Foster was forced to come to grips with its reputation for racial violence. In so doing, he began to question how other cities dealt with similar kinds of stigmas that resulted from behavior and events that fell outside accepted norms. He wanted to know how such stigmas changed over time and how they affected a city’s reputation and residents. Those questions led to this examination of the role of stigma and history in three very different cities: Birmingham, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. In the era of civil rights, Birmingham became known as “Bombingham,” a place of constant reactionary and racist violence. Las Vegas emerged as the nation’s most recognizable Sin City, and San Francisco’s tolerance of homosexuality made it the perceived capital of Gay America. Stigma Cites shows how cultural and political trends influenced perceptions of disrepute in these cities, and how, in turn, their status as sites of vice and violence influenced development decisions, from Birmingham’s efforts to shed its reputation as racist, to San Francisco’s transformation of its stigma into a point of pride, to Las Vegas’s use of gambling to promote tourism and economic growth. The first work to investigate the important effects of stigmatized identities on urban places, Foster’s innovative study suggests that reputation, no less than physical and economic forces, explains how cities develop and why. An absorbing work of history and urban sociology, the book illuminates the significance of perceptions in shaping metropolitan history.

A Reader in Themed and Immersive Spaces

A Reader in Themed and Immersive Spaces PDF

Author: Scott A. Lukas

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 1365318141

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"Themed spaces have, at their foundation, an overarching narrative, symbolic complex, or story that drives the overall context of their spaces. Theming, in some very unique ways, has expanded beyond previous stereotypes and oversimplifications of culture and place to now consider new and often controversial topics, themes, and storylines."--Publisher's website.

The Peoples Of Las Vegas

The Peoples Of Las Vegas PDF

Author: Jerry L Simich

Publisher: University of Nevada Press

Published: 2005-03-07

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 0874176514

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Beneath the glitzy surface of the resorts and the seemingly cookie-cutter suburban sprawl of Las Vegas lies a vibrant and diverse ethnic life. People of varied origins make up the population of nearly two million and yet, until now, little mention of the city has been made in studies and discussion of ethnicity or immigration. The Peoples of Las Vegas: One City, Many Faces fills this void by presenting the work of seventeen scholars of history, political science, sociology, anthropology, law, urban studies, cultural studies, literature, social work, and ethnic studies to provide profiles of thirteen of the city’s many ethnic groups. The book’s introduction and opening chapters explore the historical and demographic context of these groups, as well as analyze the economic and social conditions that make Las Vegas so attractive to recent immigrants. Each group is the subject of the subsequent chapters, outlining migration motivations and processes, economic pursuits, cultural institutions and means of transmitting culture, involvement in the broader community, ties to homelands, and recent demographic trends.

The New Politics of Leisure and Pleasure

The New Politics of Leisure and Pleasure PDF

Author: P. Bramham

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2010-11-29

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 0230299970

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This book is about the new politics of leisure and pleasure - the values, practices, struggles and contradictions that now characterize the social worlds of rambling, drinking, tourism, sex, watching TV, gambling, using the internet, reading, comedy, sport, popular music and censorship.

Blue Revolution

Blue Revolution PDF

Author: Cynthia Barnett

Publisher: Beacon Press

Published: 2011-09-20

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 0807003182

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Americans see water as abundant and cheap: we turn on the faucet and out it gushes, for less than a penny a gallon. We use more water than any other culture in the world, much to quench what’s now our largest crop—the lawn. Yet most Americans cannot name the river or aquifer that flows to our taps, irrigates our food, and produces our electricity. And most don’t realize these freshwater sources are in deep trouble. Blue Revolution exposes the truth about the water crisis—driven not as much by lawn sprinklers as by a tradition that has encouraged everyone, from homeowners to farmers to utilities, to tap more and more. But the book also offers much reason for hope. Award-winning journalist Cynthia Barnett argues that the best solution is also the simplest and least expensive: a water ethic for America. Just as the green movement helped build awareness about energy and sustainability, so a blue movement will reconnect Americans to their water, helping us value and conserve our most life-giving resource. Avoiding past mistakes, living within our water means, and turning to “local water” as we do local foods are all part of this new, blue revolution. Reporting from across the country and around the globe, Barnett shows how people, businesses, and governments have come together to dramatically reduce water use and reverse the water crisis. Entire metro areas, such as San Antonio, Texas, have halved per capita water use. Singapore’s “closed water loop” recycles every drop. New technologies can slash agricultural irrigation in half: businesses can save a lot of water—and a lot of money—with designs as simple as recycling air-conditioning condensate. The first book to call for a national water ethic, Blue Revolution is also a powerful meditation on water and community in America.