Boardwalk Empire

The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City

By: Nelson Johnson

Narrated by: Joe Mantegna, Terence Winter (foreword)

Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

Earphones Award Winner (AudioFile Magazine)

From its inception, Atlantic City has always been a town dedicated to the fast buck, and this wide-reaching history offers a riveting account of its past 100 years, from the city's heyday as a Prohibition-era mecca of lawlessness to its rebirth as a legitimate casino resort in the modern era.

A colorful cast of characters, led by Enoch "Nucky" Johnson, populates this stranger-than-fiction account of corrupt politics and the toxic power structure that grew out of guile, finesse, and extortion. Atlantic City's shadowy past through its rise, fall, and rebirth is given new light in this revealing, and often appalling, study of legislative abuse and organized crime.

This audiobook, narrated by Joe Mantegna, is the true story that inspired the upcoming HBO series of the same name. It includes a foreword written and narrated by Terence Winter.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2009 Nelson Johnson (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Joe Mantegna's steady, unaffected reading of Johnson's history of Atlantic City is a model of good audiobook narration. Mantegna seems the perfect choice for this title, a solid professional whose voice is tuned to both the drama of individual moments and the rising and falling arcs of the narrative as a whole." (AudioFile)

A good and thorough storybook

A good and thorough storybook that should be found in every NJ middle school library. Listening to this book, I learned a lot, that I didn't know before. Nevertheless, the book is a far cry from the HBO series. Many listeners will feel disappointed by the absolute lack of action scenes. Thanks to Joe Mantegna, the whole thing is somewhat salvaged from boredom.

Horrible book nothing like the movie

Misguided opinionated information throughout the book! Boring dull and nothing at all like the movie! Total waste of time and money buying this audio book!

Sychophantic apologia for New Jersey politics,

Don't get this book hoping for some of Nucky Thompson a la Steve Buscemi. Sure, a good part of the book is about this era and those bracketing it, but the rest of the book, and its a lot, concerns New Jersey and particularly Atlantic County politics. If someone told me the chairman of the Republican party of NJ had commissioned this book I'd believe it.
Towards the end the justifications and obsequiousness becomes really noticeable.
In my opinion the bad parts did not make up for the good and time would be better spent on something else. I ditched the book with 10 minutes to go, just could not listen anymore.

Watch the Series

I could not finish this book. Joe Mantegna is a great actor but he reads this in a mono tone- like manner. It's not a droning narration but Mr Mantegna keeps the exact same level of intensity in his voice reading every line of this book. At first I thought "great, It's Joe Mantegna reading this". As the book progressed I just couldn't stand it anymore. It's very detailed as to the beginnings of Atlantic City, non of which the series conveys, but I kept waiting to get that lift, that pull into the story but the narration is like a wall keeping me out. I think it coulda been a champ but no. Maybe it's me.

How I finally learned to sample before buying

An outline of the effect of polical machines on American cities Atlantic City in particular, from the Civil War to present times. Atlantic City is an excellent case study since the original Sin City was created on a desolate barrier island off the coast of New Jersey starting in the 1870s. Amidst some historical details, the author indulges in several treatises about american life: vice, corruption, political machines' exploitation of minorities and the working class, etc...
The only connection between this book and the HBO series of the same title is just that. This book's thin outline is the frail structure on which HBO drapes imagined events and characters. By itself the book might be interesting but it is undermined by an atrocious reading. They apparently recorded the narrator's first encounter with the book and the misplaced emphasis, swallowed words and general sense of confusion are blatant. The producer and director have failed the listener. Listen to the sample.

Boardwalk Empire:TheBirthHighTimesandCorruption

Should have read the reviews. PETE from Canada nailed it. Complete waste of your monthly credit for this book.

Not much about The HBO Show

so I really enjoyed the show. it took almost 4 hours to get to the time period the show was shot in then they left that time period 40 min later. It was hard to follow I assume in the book there are pictures of the dozens and dozens of people the book references without it I had trouble keeping all the characters straight

No history here

About 3-4 hours in and I've found several lies and a ton of misinformation. Beware this author's agenda.

Mind numbing.

I've never been so bored by a nonfiction. The Wikipedia page on Atlantic city is more entertaining than this book. At least there I can link to the pages of the people involved and learn something more about them than the barest facts. That's all this book is. Fact, fact, fact, fact, fact. There's hardly a narrative. When compared to other nonfiction books I've read recently, like In Cold Blood, Go Down Together and even A People's History of the United States, the "characters" in Boardwalk Empire are largely two dimensional. Even the most fascinating figures are practically reduced to chronological lists of accomplishments and failures. I promise, that's barely an exaggeration.

There's interesting information here, especially in the first half of the book, but it's presented in the driest possible manner and neglects the more interesting realities. How does one write a book about gangsters and spend the entire time listing financial statistics and explaining the inner workings of the New Jersey state senate? Oh my God. I knew it wouldn't be anything like the HBO show. That was a fictionalized drama. This is a history. But come on! The most sensational crimes described in this book are decades of constant election fraud. Okay, they do mention prostitution, drinking and gambling, but are we to believe that three generations of racketeering never shed a drop of blood? No one even got their nose smashed for protection money? Where's the grit? I get that these weren't Capone style gangsters, but I expected at least a few stories of darker crimes than construction contract bribery.

The last quarter of the book is the worst. If you decide to read this book, prepare yourself. *Most Boring Spoiler Alert Ever:* After the gangsters lose control, the most interesting things the author can find to talk about are several decades (several hours of audio) worth of real estate deals and casino gaming licensing. It's awful! Worse, it's followed by thirty minutes of the author personally lecturing Atlantic City on how they should be running things now but aren't.

I don't know how (or why) I finished this book. By the end, I had the speed cranked to 1.5x just to get it over with. I should have quit after six hours. I could be well into a much better book right now.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Montegna was fine. I'm definitely a fan. I think he's great. There just wasn't anything interesting for him to work with here. I might not have made it through without him though.