Hal K. Rothman is Professor, Barrick Distinguished Scholar, and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Considered the one of the nation's leading expert on tourism, travel, and post-industrial economies, he is the author of the widely acclaimed Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the 21st Century (2002), Devil's Bargains: Tourism in the Twentieth Century American West, (1998 ), which received the 1999 Western Writers of America Spur Award for Contemporary Nonfiction, Saving the Planet: The American Response to the Environment in the Twentieth Century (2000), LBJ's Texas White House: "Our Heart's Home" (2001), which received the Award of Merit for 2002 from the Texas Philosophical Society, The Greening of Nation? Environmentalism in the U.S. Since 1945 (1997), "I'll Never Fight Fire With My Bare Hands Again:" Recollections of the First Forest Rangers of the Inland Northwest (1994), On Rims and Ridges: The Los Alamos Area Since 1880 (1992) and Preserving Different Pasts: The American National Monuments (1989) as well as the editor of The Culture of Tourism, the Tourism of Culture (2003), winner of the Border Regional Library Association's Southwest Book Award for 2003 and a Southwest Book Award for 2003 from the Tucson-Pima County Library, Reopening the American West (1998) and co-editor with Mike Davis of the Grit Beneath the Glitter: Tales from the Real Las Vegas (2002) and with Char Miller, of Out of the Woods: Essays in Environmental History (1997). He has written for the Los Angeles Times, the Bridge News Service, the "Writers on the Range" series of the High Country News, and Urban Ecology, and has frequently been quoted or appeared in national media, including a feature in George Will's nationally syndicated column, an appearance on NewsNight with Aaron Brown, an interview with Jeff Greenfield, and four appearances on World News Tonight with Peter Jennings in 2004. He has been quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, US News and World Report, USA Today, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times, and has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, CBS Evening News, ABC 2000, NBC's Dateline, ABC's Primetime, CNN, CNN International, Outside Magazine, Metropolis, Lingua Franca, Voice of America, Public Radio International, National Public Radio, Sunset Magazine, and the Denver Post. He was featured on A&E's 1996 winter premiere, Las Vegas, in The Money and the Power, High-Tech Las Vegas, Holi-Days, and countless other television specials and programs. Widely recognized in Europe and Asia, he has narrated a German feature documentary on Las Vegas and been featured in French, Dutch, Danish, and Swedish documentaries. He has narrated programs on the Travel News Network, been a featured guest on NPR's The Savvy Traveler, and hosts a radio program, Our Metropolis, on KUNV radio in Las Vegas. In 2004, he received the Harry Reid Silver State Research Award from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the highest award the school gives, and was elected to the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame. Much to his surprise, Slate Magazine called him "the foremost guru of the new Las Vegas" and named an award after him.