The first comprehensive history of the Southwest's largest city. . . . Encompassed in this study are the region's economic, political, social, and cultural history—the full story from early `boosterism,' with its emphasis on economic and political power, through years of frustration and triumphs, up to the present day's major problem of reconciling growth with the good life.


Solid, straightforward narrative history. . . . The story is a fascinating one, full of ironies and paradoxes—of incessant boosterism and brutal exploitation, of political conservatism masking an unbreakable dependence upon the federal government. . . . Luckingham presents Phoenix's history with admirable balance and comprehensiveness.


A splendid biography of the Southwest's largest city . . . An important, scholarly, highly readable contribution to urban history.


Not only a much-needed contribution to the history of the American West, but also a significant addition to the canon of urban history.