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

No, this isn't a pot boiler full of sex, violence and perfect looking people. That's the highly entertaining, fiction based on fact TV series, and this is not the novelization of that show.

What this is is the whole history of Atlantic City, from its founding as a health resort, its success mainly as a resort for working class folk from Philadelphia, its golden age under "Nucky" Johnson (NOT "Thompson"), its post-prohibition fall that continued for decades, and its rebirth as a casino resort town.

What is especially interesting is the chapter on Atlantic City's African American community. Nearly the entire work staff of the town was black, and lived under conditions that differed little from the plantations of the the pre-Civil War South. It's a sad and remarkable story.

Johnson knows his subject and tells his story with far more skill than most historians do--if you read adult history books you'll know what I mean! And I skimmed a great deal of the latter half of this book (especially everything involving that nasty bastard Donald Trump) where the narrative lags. But if the TV series has piqued your curiosity about Atlantic City, this is worth looking into.