Las Vegas history revisited: Seeing the bust after the boom

Eight years ago, Las Vegas was booming like an Old West mining town and Geoff Schumacher wrote "Sun, Sin & Suburbia: The History of Modern Las Vegas."

But that was so 2004. In Las Vegas time, it might as well have been 1904. Since those halcyon days, the economy has dived, tens of thousands of jobs have been lost and it seems like the city has been ranked in the Top 10 of every "worst of" category.

Even Schumacher has moved on, from a position at the Las Vegas Review-Journal to the publisher's post at the Ames Tribune and its sister publications in central Iowa. (Full disclosure: "Sun, Sin & Suburbia" was published by Stephens Press, which is owned by Stephens Media LLC, owner of the Review-Journal.)

So much has changed in Southern Nevada in the past several years that Schumacher saw fit to "update the story of modern Las Vegas," as he writes in the preface. He says portions of the book have been "extensively rewritten" to reflect major developments, including CityCenter on the Strip.

Without a doubt, "Sun, Sin & Suburbia" covers a lot of territory, and it does a pretty good job of doing it. In 12 chapters, Schumacher covers the inception of Sin City to the growth of gaming to eccentric characters, including (you guessed it) Howard Hughes. Readers will be hard-pressed to find another volume about Las Vegas that tells so much in less than 400 pages.

But his book isn't just about the city of Las Vegas. Schumacher wisely chronicles the rise of the outlying communities, including Henderson, Summerlin and North Las Vegas.

Because the economic climate has changed so dramatically in the valley in the past several years, two new chapters have been added that show how the region has suffered - and how it will come back.

Ominously titled "The Reckoning: Riches to Rags," Chapter 11 describes how Las Vegas and Clark County suffered as the boom days of the 1990s and 2000s ended, the recession began in 2007 and how economic malaise continues to infect the area in 2012.

Although he doesn't give any fresh revelations, Schumacher offers a clean and concise perspective on the meltdown and how it affected every man, woman and child in Southern Nevada.

Schumacher ends his quick trip through Las Vegas history on a cautionary note. In the wake of the recession, will Las Vegas learn from its mistakes? Schumacher says probably not.

"When the economy eventually returns to highway speed, Las Vegas is likely to fall back into some of its bad habits," he writes. "But Las Vegas also will benefit from one of its strongest traits: adaptation."