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Showing 1 - 8 of 8 matches in All Departments
"This collection of Hal Rothman's wide-ranging, brash, and brilliant essays on Las Vegas offers up a treasury of insights on the follies and possibilities of the New West. Confident, passionate, learned and, yes, wise, Rothman is simply one of the most important voices writing on the region today. He is also a hell of a lot of fun to read."--Virginia Scharff, professor of history and Director, Center for the Southwest, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, and Women of the West chair at the Institute for the Study of the American West, Autry National Center, Los Angeles "Hal Rothman has been enlightening me, irritating me, surprising me, and making me laugh for twenty years. Reading his columns reminds me why. He has long been one of the brashest, loudest, smartest, and most original voices in the West. Not even ALS could quiet him. These columns aren't the same as talking to him, but they come close."--Richard White, Margaret Byrne Professor of American History, Stanford University "Hal Rothman is both the greatest Western historian of his generation and an H. L. Mencken in cowboy boots. Here is a magnificent collection of his opinion, wit, and wisdom."--Mike Davis, author of "Planet of Slums" and "Buda's Wagon"
The West is popularly perceived as America's last outpost of unfettered opportunity, but twentieth-century corporate tourism has transformed it into America's "land of opportunism." From Sun Valley to Santa Fe, towns throughout the West have been turned over to outsiders-and not just to those who visit and move on, but to those who stay and control. Although tourism has been a blessing for many, bringing economic and cultural prosperity to communities without obvious means of support or allowing towns on the brink of extinction to renew themselves; the costs on more intangible levels may be said to outweigh the benefits and be a devil's bargain in the making. Hal Rothman examines the effect of twentieth-century tourism on the West and exposes that industry's darker side. He tells how tourism evolved from Grand Canyon rail trips to Sun Valley ski weekends and Disneyland vacations, and how the post-World War II boom in air travel and luxury hotels capitalized on a surge in discretionary income for many Americans, combined with newfound leisure time. From major destinations like Las Vegas to revitalized towns like Aspen and Moab, Rothman reveals how the introduction of tourism into a community may seem innocuous, but residents gradually realize, as they seek to preserve the authenticity of their communities, that decision-making power has subtly shifted from the community itself to the newly arrived corporate financiers. And because tourism often results in a redistribution of wealth and power to "outsiders," observes Rothman, it represents a new form of colonialism for the region. By depicting the nature of tourism in the American West through true stories of places and individuals that have felt its grasp, Rothman doesn't just document the effects of tourism but provides us with an enlightened explanation of the shape these changes take. Deftly balancing historical perspective with an eye for what's happening in the region right now, his book sets new standards for the study of tourism and is one that no citizen of the West whose life is touched by that industry can afford to ignore.
Since 1900 Americans' attitudes toward the world they inhabit have changed as greatly as their own way of life. As their pace quickened, as they left the rural world of their pre-industrial ancestors and moved to urban areas, Americans became enamored of the natural world, if only as a myth. In Saving the Planet, Hal Rothman explains why Americans now see in the environment a salvation of themselves and their society, and a respite from the pressures of modern life. Mr. Rothman traces the origins of environmentalism to the diverse reform currents of the 1890s and the conservation movement of the Progressive era. Focusing on the roles of advocacy groups, prominent activists, business, legislation, and the federal bureaucracy, he shows how the idea of conservation management was transformed after World War II into a program for "quality of life." Driven largely by affluence, this revolution in American attitudes is, Mr. Rothman argues, one of many by-products of the decline in outright faith in technology. His cogent narrative history is punctuated throughout with accounts of crucial episodes in the growth of environmentalism-Hetch-Hetchy, the Echo Park Dam, the oil spill at Santa Barbara, Love Canal, and others.
New Mexico's Pajarito Plateau encompasses the Bandelier National Monument and the atomic city of Los Alamos. "On Rims and Ridges" throws into stark relief what happens when native cultures and Euro-American commercial interests interact in such a remote area with limited resources. The demands of citizens and institutions have created a form of environmental gridlock more often associated with Manhattan Island than with the semiurban West, writes Hal K. Rothman.
"By centering imaginatively around the ranch and its environs in that unique American region of the Hill Country of Texas, Rothman offers a useful approach to understanding the always fascinating Lyndon Johnson."--Journal of American History "Rothman does a good job of proving the importance of 'the home place' in the America of the 1960s. . . . Johnson wanted a place where he could be biggest and always right, and the ranch was-and during his five-year presidency became even more so-that place."--Wichita Falls Times Record News "Mr. Rothman does a nice job of explaining the politics of place, as well as describing the appeal of life on the LBJ Ranch."--The Dallas Morning News
The first comprehensive study of the park, past and present, "Death
Valley National Park" probes the environmental and human history of
this most astonishing desert. Established as a national monument in
1933, Death Valley was an anomaly within the national park system.
Though many who knew this landscape were convinced that its stark
beauty should be preserved, to do so required a reconceptualization
of what a park consists of, grassroots and national support for its
creation, and a long and difficult political struggle to secure
congressional sanction.
Nevada has always been different from other states. Almost from its beginning, Nevada sanctioned behaviors considered immoral elsewhere-gambling, prize-fighting, brothels, easy divorce-and embraced a culture of individualism and disdain for the constraints of more conventional society. In The Making of Modern Nevada, author Hal Rothman focuses on the factors that shaped the state's original maverick, colonial status and those that later allowed it to emerge as the new standard of American consumer- ism and postmodern liberalism. Rothman introduces the masters who sought to own Nevada, from bonanza kings to Mafia mobsters, as well as the politicians, miners, gamblers, civic and civil-rights leaders, union organ- izers, and casino corporate moguls who guided the state into prosperity and national importance. He also analyzes the role of mob and labor union money in the development of Las Vegas; the Sagebrush Rebellion; the rise of megaresorts and of Las Vegas as a world icon of leisure and pleasure; and the political and social impact of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. The Making of Modern Nevada is essential reading for anyone who wonders how the Silver State got this way, and where it may be going in the twenty-first century.
Take a good look at the American West and you'll see that the
frontier is undergoing constant changes--not only changes made to
the land but also changes in attitudes about the land held by the
people who live there. In this book Mike Davis, Stephen Pyne,
William deBuys, Donald Worster, Dan Flores, and others re-examine
the relationship between people and the environment in the American
West over five hundred years, from the legacy of Coronado's search
for the Cities of Gold to the social costs of tourism and gaming
inflicted by modern adventurers. By exploring places in the West,
aspects of the region's past, and ways of understanding some of its
pressing issues, the authors foster a better understanding of how
people interact and perceive land. "Reopening the American West"
takes a fresh approach to the history of the region, examining the
premises of earlier scholars as well as those who have redefined
the study of the West over the past two decades. It combines
provocative essays with insightful analyses to address issues that
are representative of the West in the twentieth
century--multiculturalism, water issues, resource exploitation--and
to reopen the West for all readers interested in new ways of
looking at its wide-open spaces. CONTENTS
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