Nevada & Nevada History

Nevada: A History of the Silver State has been named a CHOICE Outstanding Title. Michael S. Green, a leading Nevada historian, provides a detailed survey of the Silver State's past, from the arrival of the early European explorers, to the predominance of mining in the 1800s, to the rise of world-class tourism in the twentieth century, and to more recent attempts to diversify the economy. Of the numerous themes central to Green's analysis of Nevada's history, luck plays a significant role in the state's growth. The miners and gamblers who first visited the state all bet on luck. Today, the biggest contributor to Nevada's tourist economy, gaming, still relies on that same belief in luck. Nevada's financial system has generally been based on a "one industry" economy, first mining and, more recently, gaming. Green delves deeply into the limitations of this structure, while also exploring the theme of exploitation of the land and the overuse of the state's natural resources. Green covers many more aspects of the Silver State's narrative, including the dominance of one region of the state over another, political forces and corruption, and the citizens' often tumultuous relationship with the federal government. The book will appeal to scholars, students, and other readers interested in Nevada history.

There is a great deal of information on the native peoples of the United States, which exists largely in national publications. Since much of Native American history occurred before statehood, there is a need for information on Native Americans of the region to fully understand the history and culture of the native peoples that occupied Nevada and the surrounding areas. The first section is contains an overview of early history of the state and region. The second section contains an A to Z dictionary of tribal articles and biographies of noteworthy Native Americans that have contributed to the history of Nevada. The third section contains several selections from the classic book, A Century of Dishonor, which details the history of broken promises made to the tribes throughout the country during the early history of America. The fourth section offers the publishers opinion on the government dealings with the Native Americans, in addition to a summation of government tactics that were used to achieve the suppression of the Native Americans.

This is an updated edition of Verna Johnston's guide for a natural history trip into the Sierra, originally published in 1970. A professional biologist, veteran ornithologist and well-known wildlife photographer, Johnston begins in the western foothills and evokes a picture of the varied plant and animal life encountered as the elevation increases. The reader is guided through chaparral and mountain meadows, pine and fir forests, granite expanses and snowy peaks. Johnston writes of the Native Americans' uses and stewardship of the land, the role of fire in forest ecology, the eras of sheep herders and loggers, the work of John Muir and other preservationists and the battles to save Mono Lake and Lake Tahoe. Her lifetime of field experiences and discovery offers intimate observations of rarely recorded events: the courtship of the Sierra Nevada salamander, a wolverine attacking two bears, a fight to the death between a skunk and a scorpion.

Gaming executive Dwayne Kling records the fruits of his research into the history of Reno's casinos, from the backroom dives of the industry's beginnings to the elegant casino hotels of today. The information is arranged in encyclopedic form and illustrated with historic photographs.