Rating: 
Summary: Pleasant if light-weight survey of a fascinating city
Review: A light-weight survey but entertaining in its way. One suspects the academic author, at UNLV, is jealous of his betters in academe, because at the very beginning he mocks Duke through its basketball team. As a graduate of Cornell University, I don't think I would worry too much what the folks at UNLV think of us. The author is also rather conservative in that he does not question the paradigms of capitalism as it applies to the laboring Other, and has little to say about race and gender. I don't doubt there are better books about Vegas out there, but this is an enjoyable one, written in a journalistic style.
Rating: 
Summary: Life behind the Strip
Review: Although the author covers the history of Las Vegas, this book is mainly about its current growing pains. The county's rapid growth has made it impossible for schools and other institutions to keep pace with population, and the social fabric of Las Vegas is frail because so many residents are recent arrivals. Regional planning is a joke because the local government is under the thumb of developers, and no one in government wants to do anything that would raise taxes or raise housing costs. The end result is a place where even a hotel chambermaid can enjoy a pleasant middle-class lifestyle. Rothman, a history professor at UNLV, spices his book with first-person stories, such as how a friendship with a family on the other side of I-15 gradually fell apart as the driving time to visit them became longer and longer. This is a far superior book than Rothman's "The Grit Beneath the Glitter," which was a collection of essays. However, the flaw of both books is Rothman's over-the-top praise of organized labor. Granted, unions have provided many Vegas workers with a high standard of living, but it's really hard to believe (as Rothman claims) that employers are grateful to be unionized and grateful for the rule that the union - not the employer - chooses whom to hire. I was surprised that another reviewer criticized Rothman for being an overly optimistic booster, because I thought the tone of the book was rather negative. When I've visited Las Vegas, I've always thought it would be an awful place to live, and Rothman's book confirms my impression. (Of course, Las Vegas residents probably think I'm nuts for living in Saskatchewan.) This would be an excellent book for any tourist who has a serious interest in what happens beyond the strip. Also, many of the pathologies of Las Vegas are coming soon to a city near you. One of the book's more memorable passages is that, based on demographic projections, the future consists of latino service employees waiting on cranky old white people, which is hardly healthy for the fabric of society.
Rating: 
Summary: Neon Metropolis
Review: Although well written, this book has many flaws. It is very pro-union and fails to mention the fact that unions, especially in this town are [bad]. Where else can a slacker maintain his job? The book also is a very hard read and goes on endlistly about dribble!
Rating:
Summary: Neon Metropolis
Review: An insightful work. Neon Metropolis is an essential antidote to the many critics who fly to Las Vegas for a quick visit, and leave with biases undisturbed and nothing useful to say. What sets Rothman apart? He combines academic investigation with close observation, over time, of how this resort town is turning into one of the most successful and popular cities in the United States. Key to the success of this book is the fact that Rothman lives in this city, where he teaches history at UNLV. He has lived in the brand new subdivisions which excite the derision of tourist-critics who cannot fathom that such planned communities could be anything other than hideously pathological. Rothman, on the other hand, has watched these communities grow with time. His children have played in the nascent sports leagues; he has ridden the mass transit; he has seen how people carve a real community to raise families - for two or three generations now - out of unconventional and even unlikely material. He has tracked political movements and talked to his neighbors at Starbucks. And while these communities may not be perfect - Rothman has an academic's balanced powers of evaluation - they do work. This information is of wider interest as well; Rothman discusses the many ways that Las Vegas is a prototype in developing the emerging urban-suburban cities that we find across the nation. This book reveals an intriguing urban landscape. We learn how the earlier Las Vegas of the Mob shaped not only its gambling economy, but created its hospitals, churches and other institutional urban infrastructure. We then learn how the Las Vegas of Wall Street (after Hilton, Holiday Inn and other corporations became the major stakeholders) built the foundations for the enormous growth in size, prestige and influence over the last twenty years. Along the way we see how the many threads of a real city - unions, immigrants, a strong middle-class economy, civic and business leaders, and the city's self-conceptions - have been woven together. Rothman helpfully compares Las Vegas to Detroit's growth along with another booming new industry earlier in the century. This book is a dose of well-researched reality which should be read by anyone concerned with the health and direction of American cities.
Rating:
Summary: correction of stupid review
Review: Boy, I'll tell you: there's nothing worse than a reviewer who either didn't read or can't understand a book. Neon Metroplis does not argue that Las Vegas is economically malleable at all. It says that Las Vegas thrives as a tourist town because the image it presents is malleable - that it can change to meet the trends. All you have to do is remember the so-called family era - with theme parks etc. - of a decade ago and look at the ads today: "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas," to see that this is true. Neon Metropolis also says that Las Vegas is the one horse in a one-horse state; as anyone who followed 2003's tax debacle in Nevada could see, this is ever more true. Las Vegas' problems are real and Neon Metropolis is a lot more conversant with them than these two reviews suggest. This is by far the best book on Las Vegas.
Rating:
Summary: best book on Las Vegas!
Review: Finally, an intelligent look at Sin City that covers it all. It is especially strong on how the city works, on labor, immigration, retirement and really important stuff. There could be more on the Mob, but I like that the author says the town was mobbed up, but let's move on. Really good on the economics of entertainment too. and I like the section about neighborhoods and how they're different now. If you're gonna read a book about Las Vegas, this is the one!
Rating:
Summary: The Real Deal
Review: First some disclosure - I am acquainted with Hal Rothman in a professional capacity and I saw a couple of chapters before publication. Neon Metropolis is the best book I've read that explains the city I've lived in for nearly 3 years. Sure, it's easy to be ironic about Las Vegas and offer postmodern gobbledygook about what the city means. There are dozens of third rate writers and poets making unoriginal observations about Sin City. Hal tells it like it is for the folks who live here - in and outside of the gambling industry. Rothman is rigorous in his academic asessment of the city, yet the book is highly readable in explaining why Las Vegas is so successful at convincing ordinary folks like me, that I deserve to be strolling the lobby of the Bellagio with a Cosmopolitan in hand, contemplating a meal at a restaurant equivalent to a weeks pay. This is the one book I'll be recommending to newcomers to the city to get a grip on Las Vegas.
Rating:
Summary: Under the skin of the city
Review: Hal Rothman is an environmental historian, meaning he is obliged to take into account both the spatial and temporal context of his subject matter, a feat far beyond the skill set of most writers attempting to describe the circumstances of Las Vegas. The Strip channels so much money that it morphs into a new urban setting once a decade, and in the process distorts social boundaries almost beyond recognition. Traditional urbanists have had difficulty keeping up with the facelifts; only by dealing with both the surrounding geography and the underlying socioeconomic factors can you understand the enduring nature of the city. Las Vegas demands that you analyze everything from the evolution of local labor and tax laws, the water wars of the modern West, and the behaviors of civic leaders. Only Rothman's book has been able to provide a large enough frame through which we can understand both the history of Las Vegas and what it implies for the rest of America. This is not only the best book about Las Vegas, hands down, but an exemplary study of an American city.
Rating: 
Summary: Las Vegas Economically Malleable? NOT!
Review: One of the central theses of this book is that Las Vegas has miraculously "adopted" to the changing economy and has thus prospered more than other major U.S. cities by taking advantage of emerging social and economic trends. The author imagines that Las Vegas is some sort of highly malleable economic miracle machine that rolls with the punches, survives and prospers hugely while other places dependant on more recession-sensitive industries such as technology, manufacturing, and medical research ebb and flow. What nonsense! Las Vegas, and to an even greater extent its cradle of growth Clark County, have never adopted to ANY emerging economic trend, unless you count the undesirable trend of industrial-scale gaming penetration together with huge resort casinos into every corner of the city, including formerly-protected residential neighborhoods. Quite the contrary, the city has never done anything other than repackage marketing themes that sell gambling and an increasingly aggressive sex industry, advertisements for which pervade just about available public space one views from an automobile. Hide you eyes, kids! Las Vegas' economic success is certainly not based on economic malleability and adaptability. It is based on 30 years worth of cheap housing, abundant low wage jobs, weak consumer protection, and almost non-existent restraints on development of raw land. Throw in a state and a county government run for the benefit of the gaming industry and developers and voila! The "city of the future", is a vast wasteland of cookie-cutter housing tracts, endless strip malls, and a urban facade often described as "franchise architecture". This is not my vision of a desirable future. And increasingly, many observers in southern Nevada are beginning to realize that Las Vegas is rapidly becoming unlivable due to the city's rush into this future. For those who have not moved to this place yet, let's hope that Las Vegas is not the future of American urban life, but will remain what is has always been: an aberration maintained solely by unrestrained growth and legalized gambling.
Rating:
Summary: Good (if biased) information but poor writing style
Review: Overall, Neon Metropolis presents an overview of the history and sociology of modern Las Vegas. Rothman's focus is on modern Las Vegas, so readers looking for more of a straightforward history starting before the twentieth century may be disappointed. This book is best for readers looking to understand the development of the modern casino and entertainment industry or for readers looking to understand how Las Vegas functions behind-the-scenes as a modern city.
The book not only describes the development of gambling and entertainment along the Las Vegas Strip but also describes the immigration of people to Las Vegas and the problems caused by Las Vegas's high growth rate and desert location. Special attention is given to such simple things as the development of city infrastructure and the use of Hispanic immigrant labor, things that would otherwise be ignored in the history of any other city. Rothman thereby gives his readers a pespective into how both the casino industry developed and how the city as a whole developed. Rothman is also unafraid to critically analyze the problems facing Las Vegas as a modern day city, although his positions on some issues (such as labor unions) are clearly biased.
Aside from questionable biased viewpoints on some issues, Neon Metropolis suffers from being written with poor English. Rothman's largest problem is that he writes sentences that are too long to be readable. It is sometimes difficult to determine what some sentences are trying to say. Rothman also likes to use very bad metaphors and cliches. It seems as though he is trying to be funny or clever, but instead he simply sounds trite. Additional organizational problems and grammatical errors further hinder this book's readability.
In summary, I would recommend this book to readers who seriously wants to understand Las Vegas. For casual readers, however, I would recommend passing on this book unless the author produces a new version that includes some serious revisions.
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