Sun, Sin And Suburbia: An Essential History Of Modern Las Vegas

Geoff Schumacher, a local Vegas newspaper reporter, does a good job of bringing the story of Las Vegas to life in Sun, Sin & Suburbia. He is perfectly qualified to write this book, however the title of this book is misleading because he focuses mainly on local real estate development and city planning issues. His coverage of the history of casino development on the Strip is cursory, but informative. Where he's strongest is in his description of the developments of Summerlin and the other suburbs around Vegas. The book is 60% Suburbia, and 30% casinos, with zero sin. If you're looking for the "story" of Vegas including gangsters, big-time casino developers and all the color of Vegas, this is the wrong book. It takes someone with a very keen interest in the details of real estate development in Clark County to stay with the author. In this area, his work is peerless among the many books about Vegas history. My suspicion is this book will be more interesting to long-time Vegas residents than to visitors. This book was written in 2004, as Vegas was still enjoying its multi-decade mega boom in real estate and casino development. Despite the steady trend for decades, the future is never certain. An example of this is my favorite quote from the book, when the author predicts continued strong growth: "The next five years are pretty much such in stone. We know what will happen..."

I purchased this book on my last trip to Las Vegas and found it be well researched, factual and informative. I preferred the first half of the book, which provided a brief run down of the casinos, both on and off the strip, to the second half, which detailed the development of the communities within and around Las Vegas. While I found the chapters on Summerlin, Henderson and North Las Vegas interesting, I feel that they could have been condensed into one chapter and more information provided on the history of the casinos, particularly the ones that have been imploded to make way for the new resorts. Overall, I found this book to be a good read and recommend it to anyone who would like to know more about Las Vegas other than just the strip casinos.

Geoff Schumacher's "Sun,Sin,Suburbia" is a well written book that takes a look into the history of Las Vegas over the last twenty years. Written with a historians attention to detail, "Sun, Sin, Suburbia" is also a very fun read for any who are interested in Las Vegas and the rise and domination of corporations lead by men like Steve Wynn.

Schumacher has packed his account of Las Vegas full of insightful and interesting facts that other books about Las Vegas often lack. He demonstrates his intelligent, talented prose in providing a balanced perspective of the more familiar side of Las Vegas, the casino industry, while offering inside information on the development of southern Nevada, home to more than 1.6 million people. The book is well organized, and can be read in whole, or by choosing one of eleven chapters that each independently address a specific topic of Las Vegas history and its future. Those of us who live here will find useful insight on people and places we encounter regularly, as well as enlightening historical information on the people who came before us. Non-residents will gain fascinating and insightful facts beyond what is commonly known about Las Vegas. It's a great read.