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| The Money and the Power: The Making of Las Vegas and Its Hold on America | 
 enlarge | Authors: Sally Denton, Roger Morris
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy New: $1.94
You Save: $14.01 (88%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (39 reviews)
Sales Rank: 199375
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0375701265
Dewey Decimal Number: 979.3135
EAN: 9780375701269
ASIN: 0375701265
Publication Date: March 12, 2002
Release Date: March 12, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 The dark side of the American Dream January 23, 2006
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Most Las Vegans hated this book. We are used to "exposes" written by journalists who fly in for a few weekends and then purport to deliver "the real truth" about what goes on in Vegas. Having lived here for twenty years, this book finally reveals what became apparent to me after the first five years of living here: Las Vegas and the casino industry have been influencing politics nationwide since at least the Kennedy administration and everyone comes here to drink deelply from the great river of cash which floats through this town. Why would every presidential candidate since Kennedy visit a State with so few electoral votes? There are copious references throughout the book and in the back for sources. It is well researched and packed with information. It will disappoint those looking exclusively for lurid scandals in tabloid writing styles which have characterized most other Las Vegas histories. The interactions between organized crime, intelligence agencies and political figures did not surprise me. Like it or not, Las Vegas is a major player in American politics and the only place in America where the back rooms are lit by neon. Say what you want about Vegas, but what goes on here is deeply tied to the fabric of American society by politicians who choose to participate. No one held a gun to their heads to sit down at the cash table.
 Magisterial November 29, 2005
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Denton and Powers open up Las Vegas like a clam. I said to my wife, while reading this book, "It's startling", she said, "I can imagine" and I had to reply, "No you can't". I guess I expected exposes of sleaze, but sleaze (in the conventional sense of back-room oral sex, or whatever) is just background noise. The real sleaze is the tightly integrated relationship between organised crime and "straight" society, described in a deadpan style that makes the hand-in-pocket relationship between mobsters and pols seem completely ordinary - as, indeed, it is in Las Vegas's history. The overriding theme - that America - or, if you prefer, modern society - is at least as corrupt as Vegas and that Vegas may be an honest admission of that corruption in some strange way, is made with finesse. Only some leaden writing, from time to time, stops this from beiung a 5* review.
An astounding and frightening history November 27, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I read this book after my first visit to Las Vegas. As a long-time student of post-WWII American history, I could not put the book down, even as it sent me deeper and deeper into a funk about the glittering nexus of money and power and greed and lust that is Las Vegas and what its influence in our country signifies about us.
A great book, well-researched and written.
culture of self indulgence June 6, 2005
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Alright, maybe not THE definatative work on the history of Vegas, but this city has grown quite a bit in fifty years and considering that, there is much to write about as compared to say Eklo, NV. It's a great and though introduction written by semi-insiders;the stuff they don't teach in history 101(but should).
Some reviews called it pure fiction. Organized crime, the CIA, Howard Hughes and ethically challenged politicians, IN Vegas? Couldn't be! Who woulda thought.
News flash? Hardly. Interesting read though!
 Complete Fiction May 5, 2005
4 out of 13 found this review helpful
Although the title sounds tempting, it is a waste of money and time to read this book-- glorified gossip is more like it. Sally Denton and the publishers should be ashamed to claim that it is "Based on five years of intensive research and interviewing".
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