Promenade through history about the “Boardwalk Empire” worth reading.

Boardwalk Empire is definitely a book worth reading. I know what you think - Boardwalk Empire is the title of the HBO series, and books based on or in connection with the series are rarely worth reading. Let's be honest, most of the time they are completely unreadable, because they are badly written, uninteresting and appear on our market only because someone wants to earn from readers ready to throw on any publication related to the series or film. Personally, I do not like such publications because I have the impression that poor viewers are used, they are hungry for more in the breaks between seasons and could even read a cookbook if it was signed by their favorite movie hero (perhaps except for Hannibal fans).

The Boardwalk Empire case, is slightly different. The book was created before the series more precisely in 2002 and what is interesting is not a novel at all. Nelson Johnson wrote a book about the city - more precisely about Atlantic City. What's more known from the Nucky Thompson series is not even the main character of the whole story. The hero is, the city itself - we observe how it is created, how the luxury hotels grow along the promenade and the criminals are perfectly good at ruling the city. At the same time, the book is an excellent walk through the social and moral history of the United States -all the history of the city, problems, social changes and trends are perfectly reflected. For the European reader, it is also possible to look a little differently at the United States. The history of Atlantic City is not the story of an endless succession - on the contrary - we observe how the city grows to fall and find itself on the edge of a complete ruin. Today, when we can observe (at least at a distance) the collapse of Detroit, the history of Atlantic City becomes even more interesting and more informative. Nucky's story is only a small part of this thin (not all 300 pages, which makes the book perfect for one very nice evening), but full of facts book. An excerpt which the screenwriters reveal in the introduction became the basis for the creation of the series.

The book has its charm also because it tries to tell the whole story through the prism of people important to the city and their actions, and although it does not avoid footnotes (not everyone likes them, but the historian's heart is softened whenever she sees a small number at the end of the sentence) there are also a few scenes of manners that perfectly introduce into the mood of each chapter and make us start to clearly see the city and its inhabitants. It is not a great literature, but thanks to that we have a greater sense of reading notes to an unwritten novel than a strictly historical book. The definite plus of the book is that you do not have to watch or even know the HBO series. I have the impression that we live in the belief (erroneous!) that thanks to our participation in American popular culture, we understand whether we know the United States. In fact, we still know very little about this strange, contradictory country. And it is sometimes worth finding out more.

The Boardwalk Empire, moreover, fits in with a very interesting trend of publishing historical books, which, thanks to the connections with television programs, arouse interest of a wider than usual group of readers. If I had to point out a similar publication, then Mad Men Ubuttoned would recommend: A Rop Through 1960 America (Natasha Vargas-Cooper), a very nice book about what the 1960s were like in society and in the world of advertising. This story perfectly suits to combine the pleasure of watching the show with enriching our knowledge of always fascinating social history. It's good to remember that the tweaked reality of the show does not coincide with the realities of the era. And although the furniture was prettier then, the world itself was not so beautiful.

You see, I think that one of the most interesting aspects of watching series is the opportunity to look at other societies - though in an idealized or slightly distorted form, but still. After all, anyone who has contact with American popular culture does not ask questions about the traditions of celebrating Thanksgiving, it is not surprising that young people leave the house to go to university and return rarely and even can quite well orientate themselves in the American situation health service and soulless nooks of the insurance system. If you add a fairly accessible reading that adds some facts, names and dates to the fiction, you can get some knowledge about the world without leaving the popular culture. Because regardless of what one says, watching the series can be extremely educating, all you need to do is to keep the curiosity of the world. Without it, even reading masterpieces will tell us little about other people. This is a comment in the margins, because I often meet with not very flattering opinions about watching the series, and the statement that you read a book somehow connected with them often ends with a opinion that I probably devote time to something worthless. Meanwhile, while there is curiosity in us, nothing we do is worthless.

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