Preface
Introduction
1. Staging Utopia on the Boardwalk:
2. The Midway:
3. Mapping Atlantic City:
4. The Last Picture Shows:
5. Narrating Decline and Erasing Race:
6. Rebuilding the Crowd:
7. Life in the Dying City:
8. Disneyland and the Devil's Bargain:
9. Casino Publics:
Epilogue
Bryant Simon has taught at the University of Georgia and is now Professor of History at Temple University. He is the author of A Fabric of Defeat: The Politics of South Carolina Millhands, 1910-1948 and co-editor of 'Jumpin Jim Crow': Southern Politics from Civil War to Civil Rights. He grew up in southern New Jersey.
"Perhaps the finest book ever written about Atlantic City,
an....incisive history of the tension between the 'resort' and the
less-glitzy urban reality tourists rush past."--The Philadelphia
Inquirer
"A gifted writer as well as a clear-eyed historian, Simon moves
effortlessly in Boardwalk of Dreams between the fantasies that
Atlantic City sold and the social, economic and political worlds
that underlay them. The result is a lively, evocative, eminently
readable book that looks beyond the Jersey beach town to the inner
pulse of urban America."--The Chicago Tribune
"Professor Bryant is onto something here, and it is
refreshing....[A] sober look at urban degeneration and regeneration
against the backdrop of a changing nation enjoying its post-World
War II prosperity, and a burgeoning middle class eager to parade
its riches on the Boardwalk."--The New York Times
"Simon's love for the city and its history is clear...[He]
masterfully recreates [a] lost world full of music, whimsy,
culture, and style."--Times-Picayune
"For historians interested in the intersection of race and class in
the 20th century, this work is a must read."--CHOICE
"This enviably sparkling book is more a work of the scholarly
journalist than the typical fare of academic urban
history....Simon's themes are presented in a model of narrative
detail and memorable images."--Journal of Social History
"Boardwalk of Dreams is passionately argued, and Simon writes of
his own personal connection to Atlantic City with sincerity but not
sentimentality....This is a very entertaining read, a fact which
may distract readers from Simon's serious call to rethink the
city's past."--Urban History Review
"Simon has added a somewhat grandiose subtitle to his book on
Atlantic City, New Jersey, thus declaring his intention not only to
narrate the story of this famous site but also to make it a
metaphor for the U.S. urban crisis of the twentieth century. Simon
actually succeeds quite well in making this case. This is a very
fine book. The prose is excellent, the thesis is clear, and the
evidence is well marshaled." --American Historical Review
"[A] fascinating and well-written book chockfull of detail."
--Journal of Popular Culture
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