Las Vegas Sun website includes interactive casino history map, historic timeline, and Voices of Vegas sound clips form prominent Nevadans.
Las Vegas, A Centennial History by Eugene Moehring and Michael GreenSince Las Vegas was founded on May 15, 1905, when the Union Pacific auctioned off land around its new railroad shops, the city has grown from a ramshackle village to a sprawling metropolitan area of well over a million people. Such phenomenal growth was never a sure thing - in its first decades, the town languished as a railroad company town and market center for nearby ranches and mines. The construction of Hoover Dam in the 1930s brought thousands of workers, some of whom decided to stay, and World War II and the Cold War brought others, including military personnel and workers at the Nevada Test Site. But it was when Nevada legalized casino gambling in 1931 that Las Vegas met its destiny. This act, combined with the growing popularity of the automobile, cheap land and electricity, and changing national attitudes toward gambling, led to the fantastical casinos and opulent resorts that became the trademark industry of the city and created the ambiance that has made Las Vegas an international icon of pleasure and entertainment. Eugene Moehring and Michael Green have studied and written about Las Vegas for many years, and in Las Vegas: A Centennial History they offer a detailed and deeply knowledgeable account of the growth of this unique city, the impact of politics and of wars, and the city's struggle to establish diversified economy. Here are the larger-than-life characters who shaped the city, as well as the business and civic decisions. The authors' scope extends chronologically from the first Paiute people who settled around the artesian springs that gave the city its name, right up to the construction of the latest megaresort, and geographically far beyond the original township to include the several municipalities that make up the metropolitan Las Vegas area. They consider various aspects of city building such as the role of developers; the creation of infrastructure, services, and transportation; the struggle to obtain a reliable source of water; the function of cultural, civic, educational, and religious institutions; and of ethnic minorities. Las Vegas: A Centennial History celebrates the city's unparalleled growth in the brief century of its existence. It also offers fresh insight into the process of city building in the American West, where urban needs and aspirations must contend with water scarcity, isolation, erratic economies, highly diverse populations, and the rocky relationship between the need for civic order and the Western spirit of independence. That Las Vegas has become one of the nation's major cities in so brief a time reflects the prodigious energies of its people and a happy convergence of events and circumstances. Its story will engage residents and visitors alike, as well as all readers interested in the history and workings of an American city.
Call Number: Lied Library Book Stacks F849.L35 M638 2005 ; ebook version linked
ISBN: 0874176115
Publication Date: 2005
Resort City in the Sunbelt by Eugene P. MoehringResort City in the Sunbelt is a non-sensationalistic, scholarly account of Las Vegas from the building of the Hoover Dam to the construction of the MGM Grand Hotel. Historian Eugene Moehring provides a balanced view of the city's urban development. Although a unique city in many ways, Las Vegas has displayed characteristics common to other sunbelt cities across the western United States—including underfunded social services, low-density urbanization with a heavy reliance upon automobiles, a sluggish response to problems within minority communities, a preference for efficient, business-like government, and a mania for low taxes. The gaming and resort aspects are fully considered, but Moehring emphasizes the city as part of the continually expanding sunbelt. From this important study, historians will conclude that, despite some of its unusual traits, Las Vegas is much like other western cities and therefore deserves recognition as one of the fastest-growing centers in postwar America.
Call Number: F849.L35 M643 2000, UNLV Book Stacks and Special Collections
Searches large collection of American history journals. Includes citations & abstracts of articles published in Nevada Historical Society Quarterly before 2016.
Scope: U.S. and Canada only Languages: Abstracts of articles in 40 different languages
This index includes almost 400,000 bibliographic entries from over 2,000 journals published worldwide. Books, media reviews, and dissertations are also covered, and approximately 16,000 entries are added each year. The Get Text button links to online full text when available and offers access to UNLV print collections and document delivery options for books and articles not available online.
Each volume is indexed in a print indexed published in the next volume. For example, to check the index for the four issues of volume 43 published in 2000, check the contents of vol 44 (2001) for the cumulative index of the previous year.)
Southern Nevada: The Boomtown Years brings together a wide range of original source materials found in widely diverse collections from UNLV Libraries Special Collections, the Nevada State Museum, and Historical Society in Las Vegas and the Clark County Heritage Museum.
The mission of the Virgin Valley Heritage Museum is to deepen the understanding of the community and visitors about the Virgin Valley specifically Mesquite, Bunkerville and Southern Nevada. We strive to bring history to life through collections, exhibits, special events and educational opportunities.