Memories of lifeguard days and of political boss Nucky Johnson get psychiatrist Don Carter thinking about his youth in Atlantic City. Plagued by guilt over an arrest made under the Boardwalk three decades earlier, Don returns to his hometown and finds a wasteland of empty lots and gaudy casinos. Gone is the vitality of former times, when Nucky and then Hap Farley ran the show. As Don puts it, The town has turned to shit! What he doesnt know is that the stargazer he arrested so long ago is waiting for him. Soon Don is swept up in a criminal world he does not understand. Complicating the situation is his infatuation with Laura, an old flame. In desperation, he turns to a man he has deliberately avoided for yearsBenito Desimone, his wifes uncle and a leader of the Philadelphia Mafia. Benito shares Dons love for Pirandello and uses the Sicilian author to try to bring him to his senses about Laura. When Benito makes Don an offer he cant refuse, Don has to decide whether to join forces with him. This psychological thriller reaches its dramatic climax in the mountains of North Carolina.

One man was tongue-tied and awkward around women, in many ways a mama's boy at heart, although his reputation for thuggery was well earned. The other was a playboy, full of easy charm and ready jokes, his appetite for high living a matter of public record. One man tolerated gangsters and bootleggers as long as they paid their dues to his organization. The other was effectively a gangster himself, so crooked that he hosted a national gathering of America's most ruthless killers. One man never drank alcohol. The other, from all evidence, seldom drank anything else. American Dictators is the dual biography of two of America’s greatest political bosses: Frank Hague and Enoch “Nucky” Johnson. Packed with compelling information and written in an informal, sometimes humorous style, the book shows Hague and Johnson at the peak of their power and the strength of their political machines during the years of Prohibition and the Great Depression. Steven Hart compares how both men used their influence to benefit and punish the local citizenry, amass huge personal fortunes, and sometimes collaborate to trounce their enemies. Similar in their ruthlessness, both men were very different in appearance and temperament. Hague, the mayor of Jersey City, intimidated presidents and wielded unchallenged power for three decades. He never drank and was happily married to his wife for decades. He also allowed gangsters to run bootlegging and illegal gambling operations as long as they paid protection money. Johnson, the political boss of Atlantic City, and the inspiration for the hit HBO series Boardwalk Empire, presided over corruption as well, but for a shorter period of time. He was notorious for his decadent lifestyle. Essentially a gangster himself, Johnson hosted the infamous Atlantic City conference that fostered the growth of organized crime. Both Hague and Johnson shrewdly integrated otherwise disenfranchised groups into their machines and gave them a stake in political power. Yet each failed to adapt to changing demographics and circumstances. In American Dictators, Hart paints a balanced portrait of their accomplishments and their failures.

From Machiavellian city officials to big-time mobsters, corrupt beat cops, and overzealous G-men, Boardwalk Empire is replete with philosophically compelling characters who find themselves in philosophically interesting situations. This book is directed at thoughtful fans of the show. Here, readers discover parallels between the events in Boardwalk Empire and contemporary political events. Twenty philosophers address issues in political philosophy, ethics, aesthetics, feminism, and metaphysics. Is Nucky Thomson a Machiavellian prince or a Nietzschean superman? Is Jimmy's resentment towards Nucky justified, given that Jimmy would never have come into existence had his parents not met? What can be said about the ethics of lying in the seedy world of bootlegging? Agent Van Alden’s unique religious attitudes bring a warped sense of morality to the Boardwalk universe. One chapter brings to light the moral character of Van Alden’s God. Other chapters explores the roles that storytelling, deception, and gender play in the show.

In her glory days -- the pivotal decades from Prohibition to the Jet Age -- Atlantic City was the nation's center of popular entertainment. Celebrities and tourists flocked to America's Playground while political corruption, illegal gambling, bootlegging, and prostitution were all sanctioned as part of the Atlantic City experience.Chance of a Lifetime explores the heyday of this resort -- a time when real-life excesses strain even the wildest imaginations and outrageous characters made it all happen. It is the time and place where American Cool was born, it was the first home of the Rat Pack and a haven where a down-and-out Frank Sinatra was always welcome -- and never forgot it.Beginning with the early attractions of the resort island, then exploring the power base of boss Nucky Johnson and later Skinny D'Amato and his famed 500 Club -- a venue that encapsulated everything good, bad, and fun about the resort town -- we are given a nostalgic tour of the good-bad old days.This intimate and personal account of the city, the club and the famous and infamous people who passed through is told by insider Grace Anselmo D'Amato, whose husband managed the 500 Club for his brother Skinny. The reader can almost imagine sitting in a zebra-print booth at the old Five when she drops by to tell the storied history of this 20th-century playground by the sea. The book includes a foreword by the noted Atlantic City historian Vicki Gold Levi, who recounts her experiences as a teenager at the Five at its height in the '50s.Chance of a Lifetime is extensively illustrated with 178 rare pictures of celebrity, 500 Club, and historic Atlantic City images specially printed on 96 gallerypages -- with additional images throughout the text.In a place where more people came for sin than sun, Chance of a Lifetime details the rise and fall, and rise again, of Atlantic City's glorious glitz and guts.

Alcohol consumption goes to the very roots of nearly all human societies. Different countries and regions have become associated with different sorts of alcohol, for instance, the “beer culture” of Germany, the “wine culture” of France, Japan and saki, Russia and vodka, the Caribbean and rum, or the “moonshine culture” of Appalachia. Wine is used in religious rituals, and toasts are used to seal business deals or to celebrate marriages and state dinners. However, our relation with alcohol is one of love/hate. We also regulate it and tax it, we pass laws about when and where it’s appropriate, we crack down severely on drunk driving, and the United States and other countries tried the failed “Noble Experiment” of Prohibition. While there are many encyclopedias on alcohol, nearly all approach it as a substance of abuse, taking a clinical, medical perspective (alcohol, alcoholism, and treatment). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Alcohol examines the history of alcohol worldwide and goes beyond the historical lens to examine alcohol as a cultural and social phenomenon, as well—both for good and for ill—from the earliest days of humankind.