Book description
Through most of the 20th century, Atlantic City, New Jersey, was
controlled by a powerful partnership of local politicians and
racketeers. Funded by payoffs from gambling rooms, bars and brothels,
this corrupt alliance reached full bloom during the reign of Enoch
'Nucky' Johnson - the second of the three bosses to head the
Republican machine that dominated city politics and society.
In Boardwalk Empire, Nucky Johnson, Louis 'the Commodore'
Kuehnle, Frank 'Hap' Farley, and Atlantic City itself spring to life
in all their garish splendour. Author Nelson Johnson traces 'AC' from
its birth as a quiet seaside health resort, through the corruption,
notorious backroom politics and power struggles, to the city's rebirth
as an international entertainment and gambling mecca where anything goes.
Boardwalk Empire is the true story that inspired the epic HBO
series starring Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt and Kelly Macdonald.
'As good, if not better, than the television series' Independent
Nelson Johnson's family lived in Atlantic County before the city was
founded, and he is himself a lifelong resident of Hammonton, New Jersey.
He practiced law for 30 years, and was attorney for the Atlantic City
Planning Board at the time many applications for the building of the
casinos were approved. Fascinated by the complicated history of Atlantic
City, Nelson spent almost two decades interviewing, researching and
writing to create
Boardwalk Empire.
