Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City

From its inception, Atlantic City has always been a town dedicated to the fast buck, and this wide-reaching history offers a riveting account of its past 100 years--from the city's heyday as a Prohibition-era mecca of lawlessness to its rebirth as a legitimate casino resort in the modern era. A colorful cast of characters, led by Enoch "Nucky" Johnson, populates this stranger-than-fiction account of corrupt politics and the toxic power structure that grew out of guile, finesse, and extortion. Atlantic City's shadowy past--through its rise, fall, and rebirth--is given new light in this revealing, and often appalling, study of legislative abuse and organized crime.