"Sin City goes the way of Ozzie and Harriett? In thisbrilliant, well-documented probing of the nation's fastest growingmetro area, the authors show how the abnormal city of gambling andvice has normalized. Now Las Vegans and their politicians face theurban challenges - from water and air pollution to trafficcongestion and crime - that other urbanites encounter. As Las Vegasbecomes more like America, America becomes more like Las Vegas."Joe Feagin, University of Florida
"Well documented and including numerous maps, charts, andfigures, the book examines all aspects of urban development.Librarians should buy this book, it would fit into a public librarynicely and is essential for universities." LibraryJournal
"Urbanists from
all fields will benefit from learning about anunusually usual city. In short, Mark Gottdiener, Claudia Collinsand David Dickens have boldly gone where no sociologists have gonebefore and, to use Las Vegas parlance, rolled seven. they havewritten a fascinating book on a fascinating subject." Michael S.Green, Community College of Southern Nevada
"The greatest virtue of this book is its in-depth look at theevolution of Las Vegas during the last twenty years. There issimply no better set of data about the recent history of the city.Gottdiener, Collins and Dickens excel at tracking politics and itsimplications, correctly noting the problems of managing not onlygrowth but also social evolution with weak governmentalinstitutions." Hal Rothman, University of Nevada, LasVegas.
"Las Vegas is an intriguing mix of travel guide, politicalreporting, and urban commentary and thus presents a more topical,nuanced, and balanced profile of America's fastest growingmetropolitan region than anything else currently available. Thebook fits nicely into undergraduates courses in urban sociology,geography, and politics." American Journal ofSociology
"... provides a complex and densely layered snapshot of a placeall too often taken at face value." Journal of the Society ofArchitectural Historians
