Of Sagebrush and Slot Machines - This Curious Place Called Nevada

“There has been nothing ordinary about the history of the State of Nevada. Throughout its existence Nevada has been home to unconventional lifestyles that were often at odds with mainstream America.” —Introduction

A place of stark contrasts between city and wilderness, Nevada became a state in 1864 amid a storm of controversy and national strife. Its subsequent acceptance of prostitution, easy divorce, and gambling—all recognized by state statute—produced widespread moral condemnation. Its harsh climate, low population, and early discoveries of vast reserves of silver further added to the state’s historic contradictions. Finally, its traditions of slow demographic and economic growth were dramatically reversed in the latter 20th century with the explosion of the gambling industry.

The works in this third edition of Of Sagebrush & Slot Machines span this century and a half of Nevada’s history. University of Nevada, Reno historians Richard Davies and Scott Casper have once again captured the unique flavor of the Nevada experience in this meatier, more modern collection of 18 excerpts from works by writers famous and obscure on the subject of the Silver State. Intercultural conflict, rural childhood, environmental explorations, and political and social controversies are probed in these pages, taking the reader beyond the neon glow most Americans picture when they think of Nevada and into a land of hidden cultural richness and complexity.

Richard O. Davies is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Nevada, Reno. His books include Main Street Blues; The Decline of Small Town America; Defender of the Old Guard, John Bricker and American Politics; Rivals! The Ten Greatest American Sports Rivalries of the 20th Century; and Sports in American Life; A History. He is also editor of The Maverick Spirit: Building the New Nevada; and with Scott E. Casper, Five Hundred Years; America in the World.

Scott E. Casper is Foundation Professor of History at the University of Nevada, Reno. He teaches courses in 19th-century United States history and Core Humanities. He is the author of Sarah Johnson’s Mount Vernon: The Forgotten History of an American Shrine and the editor of Moving Stories: Migration and the American West, 1850-2000, among other books.

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