Praise for Everyday Las Vegas

“Las Vegas may be one of the least studied large cities, yet in many ways one of the most visible and influential. This book is a cultural and urban geography of a place that everybody knows something about, yet relatively few have ever bothered to learn about or understand.” —Joe Weber, Material Culture, 2017, 14: 1, p. 111.

“[Rowley’s] focus on ordinary lives is a welcome antidote both to overheated popular accounts and to the dearth of serious academic explorations of Las Vegas. As the current literature of place and sense of place makes clear, what people have to say about their own lived experience is as critically important as it is underinvestigated.” —Victoria Randlett, AAG Review of Books, 2015, 3: 4, 179.

“I would recommend Everyday Las Vegas to those interested in the social construction of place, tourism, urban life, insider/outsider relations, or for anyone planning a trip to Sin City.”  —Contemporary Sociology, 2014, 43: 5, p. 761.

“[Rowley] brings a different perspective to his study of local habits and vices. He has one foot in the outside world of Normal and the other foot smack in the middle of the Las Vegas Abnormal.  That perspective helps to counterbalance the never-ending tourist marketing of the Las Vegas experience in which visitors are encouraged to act like extras from “The Hangover Part III.” Like most boomtowns, Las Vegas also has a long and shameless tradition of press boosterism. A sober study of the place provides a tonic to the 100-proof hype.”  —John L. Smith, columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and author of Moving to Las Vegas, Sharks in the Desert, and numerous other books about Las Vegas and Las Vegas personalities

“…Geographer Rex Rowley has written a study to capture the experience of the “local.” . . . He emphasizes [how] city remains an attractive boomtown for those seeking to make their fortune. . . . how tourist temptations seduce many locals, and how any sense of community is crippled by the transience of those moving out of the region. He takes shots at some tenets of the locals’ faith: Gridlock is exaggerated and Las Vegas has become much less of a 24-hour town than many people imagine. On points such as this, Rowley succeeds in getting locals to see themselves anew.  —Ian Mylchrest in Desert Companion

“‘Everyday Las Vegas’ is a fascinating and much recommended addition to history and social issues collections, and for those who want another perspective on the city.”  —Midwest Book Review

“This is the first book that focuses on the neglected portion of Las Vegas—the area in the shadow of the glitter. By examining the lives of the residents who comprise the city, the common folks who are often neglected in other studies, this book makes a major contribution to both the literature on Las Vegas and . . . the geography of everyday life.”  —Richard Francaviglia, author of Believing in Place: A Spiritual Geography of the Great Basin

“Rex Rowley considers Las Vegas from an angle that gets far too little attention: what it’s like for the people who live and work there, and what the place means to them. Whether you’re a Las Vegan by birth or choice, or a scholar trying to figure out both ‘Sin City’ and the people who make it tick, you will learn something from this insightful book.”  —Michael S. Green, coauthor of Las Vegas: A Centennial History