Las Vegas was and is a hard town that will make you pay for your inability to restrain your desires.... If you have a weakness, Las Vegas will punish…

- Hal Rothman

Las Vegas is still socially sanctioned deviance. Its brand is just more comfortable to more Americans than it used to be.

- Hal Rothman

Las Vegas is the therapeutic ethos of our time run amok, our socio-psychological promise to ourselves to be eternally young writ large on the landsca…

- Hal Rothman

Capitalism is a warrior culture, a hierarchical mode, and Las Vegas is its epitome.

- Hal Rothman

From its founding, [Nevada] has always struggled to belong. It has had a series of masters--the mining industry, the railroads, the federal governmen…

- Hal Rothman

The outsiders have become kings and queens of the castle. It is a whole lot easier to sit outside the tent and throw firecrackers inside; it is much,…

- Hal Rothman

The reinvention of American culture as purely the self catapulted Las Vegas to prominence. The city took sin and made it choice -- a sometimes ambigu…

- Hal Rothman

In a city of illusion, where change is what the city does, it's no wonder Las Vegas is the court of last resort, the last place to start over, to rei…

- Hal Rothman

In Las Vegas, people seem to believe, the prosperity spawned by tourism and gaming can make them whole, financially and spiritually. Las Vegas now me…

- Hal Rothman