Boardwalk Empire

Through most of the 20th century, Atlantic City, New Jersey, was controlled by a powerful partnership of local politicians and racketeers. Funded by payoffs from gambling rooms, bars and brothels, this corrupt alliance reached full bloom during the reign of Enoch 'Nucky' Johnson - the second of the three bosses to head the Republican machine that dominated city politics and society.

InBoardwalk Empire, Nucky Johnson, Louis 'the Commodore' Kuehnle, Frank 'Hap' Farley, and Atlantic City itself spring to life in all their garish splendour. Author Nelson Johnson traces 'AC' from its birth as a quiet seaside health resort, through the corruption, notorious backroom politics and power struggles, to the city's rebirth as an international entertainment and gambling mecca where anything goes.

Boardwalk Empireis the true story that inspired the epic HBO series starring Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt and Kelly Macdonald.

'As good, if not better, than the television series'Independent

Nelson Johnson's family lived in Atlantic County before the city was founded, and he is himself a lifelong resident of Hammonton, New Jersey. He practiced law for 30 years, and was attorney for the Atlantic City Planning Board at the time many applications for the building of the casinos were approved. Fascinated by the complicated history of Atlantic City, Nelson spent almost two decades interviewing, researching and writing to createBoardwalk Empire.

The original book that inspired Boardwalk Empire, the award-winning, prohibition-era HBO series from Martin Scorsese and the producers of The Sopranos