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People of Chance: Gambling in American Society from Jamestown to Las Vegas

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Description

In 1978 the Reverend Billy Graham himself consecrated Las Vegas’s place within the American cultural mainstream by taking his “crusade for Christ” there. He found the resort “a nice place to seek advice from,” and pointed out that, at the same time as he didn’t gamble himself, the Bible said nothing definitive against the practice.

This book is a social history of American gambling in a series of frontier settings ranging from seventeenth-century Jamestown to twentieth-century Nevada. The book points out the affinity between gambling and frontiers, showing how both thrived on high expectations, risk-taking, opportunism and movement, and both helped to shape a distinctive culture.

The first half of the book paints a vivid picture of gambling within the colonial and early national frontiers, on the Missiissippi River, and within the California Gold Rush. Findlay describes how within the ninteenth century progessional gamblers, operating in towns and riverboats along the Mississippi, popularized casino games, and then tells how these gaming practices were transported to the mining frontiers of the Far West. The second one half of the book traces Las Vegas’ rise as The usa’s ultimate resort. The culmination of almost four centuries of westward migration and chance-taking by Americans, Las Vegas represents a link between The usa’s frontier past and the latest values of the Sunbelt culture.

About the Writer:

John J. Findlay is Assistant Professor of United States History on the Pennsylvania State University.

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