Overview

Gambling was central to the cultural, social, and intellectual history of nineteenth-century Europe. By tracing the evolution of gambling and investigating the spatial qualities of the casino, this book reveals how Europeans used gambling to understand their changing world. The development of resorts and the architectural qualities of casinos demonstrate how new leisure practices, combined with revolutions in transportation and communication, fashioned resort gambling in the Rhineland and Riviera. Jared Poley explores the importance of casino gambling in people's lives, probing how gambling and fate intersected. The casino impacted understandings of the body, excited emotions, and drove the 'psychology' of the gambler, as well as affecting ideas about probability, chance, and luck. Ultimately, this book addresses the fundamental question of what gambling was for, and how it opened up opportunities to understand theories about aggression, play, and human development.

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9781009393577

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Author Information

Jared Poley is Professor of History at Georgia State University. He is the author of Decolonization in Germany: Weimar Narratives of Colonial Loss and Foreign Occupation (2005) and The Devil's Riches: A Modern History of Greed (2016) as well as co-editor of volumes on religious conversion, money, and migration in Germany.

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