Suburban Xanadu: The Casino Resort on the Las Vegas Strip and Beyond [Paperback]

David G. Schwartz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0415935571 | ISBN-13: 978-0415935579 | Edition: 1

Urban gambling, linked to poverty, crime and corruption, was once considered a blight on US cities. Gambling then followed the exodus of Americans into the suburbs after World War II and now, at the beginning of the 21st century, most Americans live within a four-hour drive of a casino. What explains the success of places like Las Vegas? The self-contained casino resort removes gambling and its social problems from cities and provides Americans with the comfort of gambling in a setting matched to their suburban lifestyle. In a detailed look at the growth of the earliest casino resorts to the "pleasure palaces" and riverboat casinos of today, "Suburban Xanadu" locates the rise of the casino resort in suburbanization and the significance of this development for today.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Suburban Xanadu is an important addition to what we know about America's most exciting and controversial city. Dave Schwartz peels back myth to get to the heart of what really makes Las Vegas tick. A must for anyone who cares about culture in the new century!.
–Hal Rothman, author of Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the Twenty-First Century

Suburban Xanadu tells the fascinating story of the rise of casinos on the Las Vegas Strip--something that has been much needed. Using the extensive Gaming Collection at UNLV, Dave Schwartz shows us that the popularity of casinos is no accident, but part of larger trends in American history. He approaches the topic with intelligence and thoughtfulness, and the result is a book that does a great job of explaining why Americans like casino resorts so much.
–Steve Wynn, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Wynn Resorts

Highly Recommended! Suburban Xanadu is a colorful and authoritative reading of the history of casino resort development in the United States. Schwartz's thesis--that Las Vegas in the 1950s and 1960s was brilliantly marketed as a safe vacation adventure for middle Americans trapped within everyday lives of conservatism and conformity--is both perceptive and spot-on.
–John Hannigan, author of Fantasy City: Pleasure and Profit in the Postmodern Metropolis

From the Author

I wrote this book to provide an honest account of the rise of the casino industry. If you want a real history of the Las Vegas Strip that is well-documented and occasionally amusing, check this out. If you read the book and liked it, I would be very grateful for your posting a review.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415935571
• ISBN-13: 978-0415935579
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,484,487 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I love how "writer, historian" is in quotes next to my name. I really am one of each--I've got a Ph.D. in US History from UCLA and I've written three books so far. Most of my research and writing deals with gambling.

I first got interested in gambling as a kid growing up in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in the 1970s. Some of my earliest memories are of the classic hotels of the city being imploded to make way for modern casinos with hotel towers that were uniformly ugly. Despite this early evidence of that, perhaps, history might not have the strongest hold over people, I decided to major in it as an undergrad, along with anthropology. When it came time to go to grad school, I chose history over anthropology, though I can't recall as I'm writing this exactly why I made that decision.

In grad school I was preparing myself for the life of a college history professor when a small exercise called the dissertation stepped in my way. I would have to choose something to write a book-length historical study on, and it had to be something that would contribute in some way to the literature.

That's when I remembered the questions I'd had about casinos as a kid: Why did they need to blow up those beautiful old buildings to build new ones that didn't look nearly as nice? If they just wanted to gamble, why didn't they just let people gamble wherever they wanted? With a few questions like that, I was on my way to writing a dissertation that got me researching casinos.

From there, I haven't looked back, except for the year that I spent after I got my degree working in casino surveillance in Atlantic City's Trump Taj Mahal casino. I'd worked at the Taj earlier in security,and spending some time in surveillance gave me an appreciation for just how complex casinos are, and it kindled an interest in a whole other set of questions.

Since arriving at UNLV back in 2001, I've been running the Center for Gaming Research, which has let me look at some very interesting areas of gambling and Las Vegas history.

My website has a ton of info about my writing, professional, and creative work. So feel free to check it out at www.dgschwartz.com.

As far as the writing goes, I'm hard at work on my fourth book, which is in the editing stages. I write biweekly columns in the Las Vegas Business Press and Vegas Seven, and often write feature and smaller pieces for Vegas Seven as well.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The author hits the jackpot!, July 21, 2003

By 

"sarasmile70" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Suburban Xanadu: The Casino Resort on the Las Vegas Strip and Beyond (Paperback)

The author, a professor and coordinator of the Gaming Studies Research Center at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, really hits the jackpot with this, his first publication. Although I am a financial analyst, specializing in the gaming industry, I was intrigued by Dr. Schwartz's historical analysis of the development of legalized gaming in Las Vegas and throughout the United States. The book is extremely well-researched and, while clearly written by a scholar, it has a friendly, accessible style. Suburban Xanadu has something for those interested in business, American history, popular culture, gaming, "the Rat Pack," sociology, etc. I have recommended this book to my colleagues and I look forward to reading future works from this unique young author.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Historical Excellence, May 3, 2004

By 

Paul J. Vanderwood (La Mesa, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Suburban Xanadu: The Casino Resort on the Las Vegas Strip and Beyond (Paperback)

Most writings on casino life in the U.S. are larded with celebrity vignettes, unsubstantiated data, and airy fluff. But David Schwartz has produced a well-researched, carefully documented, clearly written historical account of Las Vegas casino culture from its inception in the early 1930s to the present. His carefully contextualized work shows how changing currents in American cultural life and leisure preferences shaped the style, architecture, and budgetary considerations of those who aimed to profit from casino ownership in an improbable desert environment. One learns from his book of the risk involved in such investments, and how the famous Las Vegas strip has always rested on unsteady financial and political pylons. Finally we have a solid, fascinating historical account of the casino industry and its consumers.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read, March 10, 2005

By 

G. Oseff "High Roller" (Nevada, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Suburban Xanadu: The Casino Resort on the Las Vegas Strip and Beyond (Paperback)

Suburban Xanadu is a great book that really captures the history of Las Vegas. I took the class that was taught by Professor David Schwartz and it was well worth buying the book. I have had many of my friends and business colleagues read this book and they thought it was great. Suburban Xanadu is must read to truly understand Las Vegas past and how it all got started.