High Times and the Corruption of Atlantic City - The Birth

enjoyed reading the beginning of the story.
after a while it gets monotonous and very political. i llked the mafia part but not the politics surrounding this story.

should have been titled : The politics surrounding the birth, etc....

Very informative book. Anyone looking for gliz and drama may not find exactly what they seek. Yet, those looking for factual, interesting, data on how Atlantic City evolved over decades of time will be delighted.

Very historical look at the growth of Atlantic City, NJ. Shows how the population grew and shifted. Talked about the building of the infrastructure, the political manipulation and the corruption. A good book for anyone from NJ.

I hate that this is the last season for Boardwalk Empire. I will buy all of the seasons and watch them repeatedly. The production values are perfection. The acting is wonderful. The music is terrific. And the writing is first rate, along with the directing. One of the finest things ever to hit the small screen.

I thought this would be a novel following the characters from the tv series. It isn't. It is the factual history from which the series was created. I didn't finish it, but perhaps I'll go back to it later.

I will probably finish Boardwalk, but have put it aside for a while. It seems to bog down in detail. The book started off with a "bang" and I thought,"Hmmm, this will be very good!". I enjoyed the "founding" of Atlantic City, but the story seems to drag on and on without getting to the "meat" of the story.

This book is very informative and incredibly dull. I've not seen the television version but, from the promos and recommendations from friends, it appears to be attention-holding. The book is more of a very dry history; informative but a bit of a slog to get through.

This book is a necessary resource for those who are interested in the political history of Atlantic City. Johnson shows how corruption and protection rackets came to dominate the economy and politics of the city. Sporadic quotes from the characters involved in this history help to spice up the book.

Growing up in New Jersey I was extremely interested in this part of history that was unknown to me. I find the book well written as well as fully researched. I had no idea Atlantic City was an island! And I had been there many, many times. I highly recommend this fasinating book.

Thought it was more about the historical basis for the series. only a couple of chapters regarding the HBO series. Wanted more in depth about this. Was fairly interesting regarding the history of Atlantic City, but that was not the reason I read the book.

If you like an excellent story great acting great characters and of course great historical reproduction this is the series for you. I watched it compulsively until it went too far because there is quite a bit of hatred towards Christianity directly portraying Christians as murderers, adulterers, etc. there is also a tremendous amount of violence in it. I did have to stop watching after some point I couldn't stomach it anymore especially since I'm a Christian it's really too bad that I had to choose between an excellent show and my faith.

I feel badly giving this book a mediocre review since the author can hardly be blamed for the book not being as good as the tv show it inspires. But I do fear a lot of people will be directed to this book as fans of the tv show and it's simply not for them. There are some small parts of it that relate to the 1920s era but most of it is a relatively dry history of the town. And I'm not really even sure the town is all that interesting. If you're a fan of the history of certain American cities then I guess it fulfills a wish there, but I found the book a bit boring and hard to finish despite not even being that long. Oh well.

Having been born in Atlantic City and having a family living there for most of the 40s thru the 60s, I looked forward to reading this book. It was interesting to learn how the city was founded and the reasons for its founding. However I didn't recognize one name that was mentioned. I was expecting to see at least my grandfather named there. However, everything was about the Republican control of the city and its corruption. Yet not one word was mentioned about Lenora Slaughter who hosted the Miss America pageant and was a friend of my mother. The hurricane of 1938 was equal to Hurricane Sandy and was as destructive. Hardly a word. We read about racketeers and corrupt politicians. Yet we don't read very much about the decent citizens who worked hard to make a living. The book was made to watch the the TV movie and buy DVD disks. I was disappointed.

Like some of the other critical reviews of this book, I did not like this book. I love historical fiction, but there were too many biased statements to have made this an enjoyable, credible book for me. I agree with one of the reviewers who stated that the entire book leaned toward being propaganda.

I also found this book to be repetitious and derogatory toward certain groups of people (ie, successful).

It was not worth the $1.99 I paid for it-----get it from your library if you have the urge to read it.