Drop everything you think you know about architecture and snootiness and re-evaluate. This brilliant-bonkers study mines the genius in the inanity that is Las Vegas. Pre-computer-aided-layout, the book makes gorgeous use of cramped Helvetica and information presentation (this is all way pre-Tufte, kids). Dated, sure, and sort of hard to map onto today's Las Vegas--the surreal landscape there changing so fast--but an academic gem cogent to architecture, art history, sociology and urban studies students. Such a strange city. ( )

This book has an accumulated importance in that it demonstrates the folly in American urban design, yet at the same time letting us see what good has come of the bad. ( )