Ruinopolis: Post‐Imperial 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 post‐imperial 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 self‐presentation 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 ‘Pentagon Desert’ around the city with its so‐called ‘national sacrifice zone’, and the Strip, with C aesars P alace. We conclude with a post‐imperial 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