For those who missed the live broadcast this week, the Lectures in History show featuring me is now available via streaming video from C-SPAN:
University of Nevada-Las Vegas history professor David Schwartz specializes in the history of gambling in America. In today’s class, Professor Schwartz—who is also the director of UNLV’s Center for Gaming Research—focuses on the early history of the Las Vegas Strip in the 1940s and 1950s
via Lectures in History: Birth of the Las Vegas Strip | C-SPAN.
Here is some context: This is the sixth lecture in a 15-lecture course called “The History of Casinos” that covers, you guessed it, the development of casinos. The week before, we talk about the origins of legal gaming in Nevada and handle the growth of gambling halls in Reno, Downtown Las Vegas, and a few other places in the state. The week after, we cover the 1950s boom along the Strip.
All in all, it’s 1:36:15 of Vegas casino history that I think is pretty important. When the American History TV producers approached me about recording one of my lectures, I gave them a choice of topics and this is the one they settled on, and I agree that it’s something that is more likely to capture the public imagination than the week before.
If all goes well, my next book project will be, more or less, a print version of this class–an easy-to-understand, smart-but-not-burdened-by-jargon look at how the casino industry in America grew. If you happen to know a publisher who’d be interested in working together on a project like that, please contact me.