Description:
Gragg shows how a place like the Las Vegas Strip--with its glitz and vast wealth and its wildly public consumption of vice--rose to prominence in the 1950s, a decade of Cold War anxiety and civil rights conflict. Becoming America's Playground brings this pivotal decade in Las Vegas into sharp focus for the first time.
Brief description:
Larry D. Gragg is Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus at Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, and the author of eight books, including "Bright Light City" Las Vegas in Popular Culture and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel: The Gangster, the Flamingo, and the Making of Modern Las Vegas.
Review Quotes: "With meticulous research and insight, Larry Gragg shows how Las Vegas and its enterprising citizens capitalized on larger national trends to transform Las Vegas from a dusty desert backwater into one of the most visited places on Earth. An important new interpretation with wide appeal."--Andy Kirk, author of Doom Towns: The People and Landscapes of Atomic Testing