UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA PRESS

The advent of gaming on Indian reservations has created a new kind of tribal politics over the past three decades. Now armed with often substantial financial resources, Indigenous peoples have adjusted their political strategies from a focus on the judicial system and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to one that directly lobbies state and federal governments and non-Indigenous voters. These tactics allow tribes to play an influential role in shaping state and national policies that affect...

Nevada’s capital city is today a charming, modern community, with an unusually eventful past. A Short History of Carson City traces its history from its origin as a mid-nineteenth-century trading post to its rise as the political center of Nevada. Here are the hard-working citizens and colorful characters, the political and business decisions, and the evolving economy that helped shape it. This is the first comprehensive historical account of a thoroughly modern state capital with its roots...

The meteoric rise of Las Vegas from a remote Mormon outpost to an international entertainment center and metropolitan area of over a million people was never a sure thing. In its first decades, the town languished but when Nevada legalized casino gambling (1931), the city met its destiny. This book celebrates the city's unparalleled growth, examining the development of its industry and the creation of an urban complex. Here are the colorful characters who shaped the growth, chronologically...

H. Lee Barnes, who teaches English at the Community College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas, has written a most entertaining, intriguing book on the ups and downs and colorful side of casino dealing (in this case the game is blackjack). Subtitled 'Inside the Culture of Casino Dealing', it should be read by anyone planning to train for a career in dealing and by anyone who wonders about the stresses of the job, the funny side of casino life, and the oddball nature of the players themselves....

Las Vegas was largely shaped by a handful of colorful and astute casino operators who turned a dusty desert town into the gaudy, booming holiday mecca that it is today. The essays in this book introduce us to these players. We discover how early leaders like Cliff Jones, Moe Dalitz and Benny Binion first grasped Las Vegas’s potential as a center for high-stakes gambling, and we read of mobster Bugsy Siegel’s efforts to bring to reality another man’s dream of a glamorous...

The authors, both journalists, moved to Las Vegas in 1977. In this book, they look at the entire spectrum of Glitter City from its humble beginnings as a little pond in a big desert to its fantastic present. Covers pioneers, mobsters, entertainers, dam builders, and back street action. Also includes a look at Laughlin, Primm, and Mesquite. 240 Pgs. 1999

A major study of the urbanization of Las Vegas that also provides a look at the city's historical development, this is a scholarly study of Las Vegas' efforts to annex its suburbs. Contains a discussion of the civil rights movement in the city: how Blacks were excluded and how the industry allowed a few influential bigots to control its destiny in the 1930s and 40s. 330 pgs, paperback, 2000