Hal K. Rothman (1958–2007) was a historian, professor, radio show host, editor, public intellectual, and prolific author. Noted environmental history scholar Char Miller called him "a dynamic teacher, riveting speaker, compelling scholar, and sharp-tongued pundit."[1] The writer Will Sarvis called Rothman "one of the best editors" he had ever worked with.[2] University of Colorado historian
Patricia Nelson Limerick (author of the famous book, Legacy of Conquest) described Rothman as a key contributor in the late 20th century renaissance of American West history. Limerick confirmed Rothman's almost unworldly level of energy, "Especially [in] the rate of publications -- thoughtful, and really worthwhile books."[3] Rothman made numerous national media appearances in the
New York Times,
Wall Street Journal,
Chicago Tribune, and on
CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, and other places.[4] He was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame in 2004.[5]
America's National Monuments: The Politics of Preservation. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1989. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1994.
Beyond Neon: How Las Vegas Shed its Stigma and became the First City of the Twenty-First Century. NY: Routledge, 2002.
Blazing Heritage: a History of Wildland Fire in the National Parks. NY: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Devil's Bargains: Tourism in the Twentieth-Century American West. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1998.
"I'll Never Fight Fire with My Bare Hands Again": Recollections of the First Forest Rangers of the Inland Northwest. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1994.
LBJ's Texas White House: "Our Heart's Home." College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2001.
ISBN978-1-58544-141-9
Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the Twenty-First Century. NY: Routledge, 2002.
On Rims & Ridges: the Los Alamos Area since 1880. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.
ISBN0-8032-8966-9
Preserving Different Pasts: the American National Monuments. Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 1989.
Reopening the American West. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1998.
Saving the Planet: the American Response to the Environment in the Twentieth Century. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2000.
The Making of Modern Nevada. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2010.
The New Urban Park: Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Civic Environmentalism. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2004.
with Daniel J. Holder. Promise Beheld and the Limits of Place: a Historic Resource Study of Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountains National Parks and the Surrounding Areas. Washington, DC : U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service, 1998.
with Gerald D. Nash and Richard W. Etulain. The Greening of a Nation?: Environmentalism in the United States since 1945. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998.
with Lincoln Bramwell. Playing the Odds : Las Vegas and the Modern West. Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press, 2007.
with Mike Davis, The Grit beneath the Glitter: Tales from the Real Las Vegas. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
ISBN978-0-520-22538-1
with William P. Clements. The Culture of Tourism, the Tourism of Culture: Selling the Past to the Present in the American Southwest. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2003.