Forgot your password?  

Not What You Meant?  There are 590 definitions for List of natural history museums.  Also try: Vega or Jubilee or LV or Vegas.

Las Vegas | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Print-Friendly   Order the PDF version   Order the RTF version
About 5 pages (1,558 words)
Las Vegas, Nevada Summary

Purchase our Las Vegas


Las Vegas

The evolution of Las Vegas, Nevada, is one of the most intriguing of any city in the United States. Desert oasis and water and electricity supplier for most of the Southwest, and a legendary gambler's paradise that is one of the world's most tantalizing and popular vacation spots, the city is most famously cast in the spuriously glamorous image of the Mafia. As such, it has come to color the vocabulary of popular culture through countless novels, movies, and television dramas. Surrounded by the Mojave Desert and flanked by mountain ranges, Las Vegas came of age in the shadow of the post-World War II American Dream, a shining example of excess as success, whose neon-lit casino strip glows on the horizon—a beacon attracting thousands of folk eager to try their luck. An adult Disneyland in southwestern Nevada, this dusty tinsel town effuses Old West history while raking in the house winnings, and is reviled as often as it is romanticized for the glorious vice hidden in its stark desert landscape. Yet, while the popularity of its glitz and show biz glamour waxes and wanes, the bright lights and obvious façade of Vegas are lodged as a permanent and familiar backdrop in the American consciousness.

This page contains 201 words.

Purchase our Las Vegas article Las Vegas article
Read the rest of this article.
This article contains 1,558 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page).
Ask any question on Las Vegas, Nevada and get it answered FAST!
Answer questions in BookRags Q&A and earn points toward
discounted or even FREE Study Guides and other BookRags products!
Learn more about BookRags Q&A
Copyrights
Las Vegas from St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.

Join BookRagslearn moreJoin BookRags

Join BookRagslearn moreJoin BookRags