The grit beneath the glitter : tales from the real Las Vegas / edited by Hal K. Rothman and Mike Davis.

ISBN:

9780520935457

9781417525348

9781597346436

Title:

The grit beneath the glitter : tales from the real Las Vegas / edited by Hal K. Rothman and Mike Davis.

Author:

Rothman, Hal, 1958-2007.

Publication Information:

Physical Description:

1 online resource (388 pages) : illustrations

Contents:

Scripting Las Vegas : noir naïfs, junking up, and the new strip / Norman M. Klein -- Las Vegas of the mind : shooting movies in and about Nevada / Francisco Menendez -- Discordant infrastructure / Peter Goin -- Growth, services, and the political economy of gambling in Las Vegas, 1970-2000 / Eugene Moehring -- Lighting Las Vegas : electricity and the city of glitz / Jay Brigham -- Build it and the water will come / Jon Christensen -- The social costs of rapid urbanization in Southern Nevada / Robert E. Parker -- Rise to power : the recent history of the Culinary Union in Las Vegas / Courtney Alexander -- Class struggle in Oz / Mike Davis -- "Squeezing the juice out of Las Vegas" : reflections on growing up in Smalltown, USA / Brian Frehner -- I didn't know anybody lived there / Shannon McMackin -- How I became a native / William N. Thompson -- Inside the glitter : lives of casino workers / Kit Miller -- "She works hard for her money" : a reassessment of Las Vegas women workers, 1945-1985 / Joanne L. Goodwin -- The racial cauldron / Mike Davis -- Inside Jean / Constance Devereaux -- Looking into a dry lake : uncovering the women's view of Las Vegas / Amie Williams -- Colony, capital, and Casino : money in the real Las Vegas / Hal Rothman -- Who puts the "sin" in "Sin City" stories? Girls of grit and glitter in the city of women / Kathryn Hausbeck -- Nevada goes global : the foreign gaming rule and the spread of casinos / William N. Thompson -- Canto : Las Vegas / Richard Misrach.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Geographic Term:

Las Vegas (Nev.) -- History -- 20th century.

Las Vegas (Nev.) -- Social conditions -- 20th century.

Las Vegas (Nev.) -- Economic conditions -- 20th century.

Added Author:

Rothman, Hal, 1958-2007.

Davis, Mike, 1946-

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

2002

Publication Information:

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
979.3135 22	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

The Grit Beneath the Glitter is the first real look at the new Las Vegas from the inside. In it, long-time residents as well as professionals reflect on the transformation of one of the fastest-growing and most famous cities on earth, yet one about which relatively little is known. They offer a lively and compelling portrait of the other side of Las Vegas: the people and institutions that support the glitter of the gaming and entertainment industry. Examining a range of topics--from the city's commercial history, labor conditions, and environmental problems to an analysis of the famous lights of the Strip--the contributors uncover the contradictions between the illusion and the reality of the city, the seam between fantasy and the life it masks. The essays in this collection explore the world that employees experience when they enter gaming palaces from an employee entrance in a back parking lot rather than through the scripted doors of casino/hotel palaces. They take readers into the neighborhoods where 1.4 million Americans now live, attend school, eat dinner, and go to work.

Author Notes

Rothman Hal :

Hal Rothman is Professor of History at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Among his books are Devil's Bargains (1998), The Greening of a Nation? (1998), and Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the 21st Century (due out in 2002). Mike Davis is Professor of History at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. He is the author of City of Quartz (1992) and Ecology of Fear (1998), among other books.

Reviews (1)

Library Journal Review

From casinos and showgirls to culinary workers and academic life, this anthology gives us Las Vegas from the perspective of the people who call it home. Many of the articles are scholarly in nature (editor Rothman is a history professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas), while others come in the form of personal essays. The quality of the scholarly pieces is high; the personal essays range from moving and insightful to just plain dull. While celebrated journalist Davis is a coeditor and contributor, there is nothing new from him here, only reprints of magazine articles now a decade old. Still, his name will increase the demand for and visibility of the collection. Recommended for libraries in the West but an optional purchase for everyone else. Andrew Brodie Smith, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Lib., Washington, DC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.