50 research outputs found
Ruinopolis: PostâImperial Theory and Learning from Las Vegas
This essay foregrounds a dimension of L as V egas that other authors only touch on in passing: its connections to empire. The authors propose a postâimperial analysis of the city based on a reconstruction of its history and a reading of the traces of this history in the city's architecture and its selfâpresentation in American popular culture. This analysis of Las Vegas as ruinopolis draws attention to the ruin sites of the city and its hinterland, reading them through the lens of empire. We work out the imperial territoriality of Las Vegas, including the derelict space of the L as V egas P aiute I ndian C olony, the âPentagon Desertâ around the city with its soâcalled ânational sacrifice zoneâ, and the Strip, with C aesars P alace. We conclude with a postâimperial reading of V enturi, S cott B rown and I zenour's canonical Learning from Las Vegas and of the ruin signs of the N eon B oneyard.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106857/1/ijur12117.pd
Book Review: Kit Carson and His Three Wives: A Family History
This examination of Kit Carson\u27s family life goes a long way toward correcting the monster image of the famous frontiersman that has held sway with revisionist historians in the last three decades
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The Indian Role in the 1876 Centennial Celebration
The American nation found itself wrapped up in a major contradiction in 1876. Celebrating its own one-hundredth year of independence from Britain, the country was ruthlessly extinguishing the independence of the Native American people. Despite the Sioux victory over General Custer that summer, 1876 proved to be no year of celebration for the Indian. The end of his freedom was at hand. Yet, ironically, while wars still continued on the plains, the United States government decided to include the American Indian in its exposition. The role the Indian played in the Centennial is illustrative of the contemporary public image of Indian America and of the utter incapacity of the nation to see more than curiosity value in native culture. It also may serve to suggest that history should not be repeated one hundred years later
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