Hal K. Rothman (1958–2007) was a historian, professor, radio show host, editor, public intellectual, and prolific author. Noted environmental history scholar Char Miller called him "a dynamic teacher, riveting speaker, compelling scholar, and sharp-tongued pundit."^[1] The writer Will Sarvis called Rothman "one of the best editors" he had ever worked with.^[2] University of Colorado historian Patricia Nelson Limerick (author of the famous book, Legacy of Conquest) described Rothman as a key contributor in the late 20th century renaissance of American West history. Limerick confirmed Rothman's almost unworldly level of energy, "Especially [in] the rate of publications -- thoughtful, and really worthwhile books."^[3] Rothman made numerous national media appearances in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, and on CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, and other places.^[4] He was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame in 2004.^[5]

Rothman died of Lou Gehrig's disease on Feb. 25, 2007.^[6]

Selected publications

• America's National Monuments: The Politics of Preservation. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1989. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1994.
• Beyond Neon: How Las Vegas Shed its Stigma and became the First City of the Twenty-First Century. NY: Routledge, 2002.
• Blazing Heritage: a History of Wildland Fire in the National Parks. NY: Oxford University Press, 2007.
• Devil's Bargains: Tourism in the Twentieth-Century American West. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1998.
• "I'll Never Fight Fire with My Bare Hands Again": Recollections of the First Forest Rangers of the Inland Northwest. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1994.
• LBJ's Texas White House: "Our Heart's Home." College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2001. ISBN 978-1-58544-141-9
• Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the Twenty-First Century. NY: Routledge, 2002.
• On Rims & Ridges: the Los Alamos Area since 1880. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992. ISBN 0-8032-8966-9
• Preserving Different Pasts: the American National Monuments. Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 1989.
• Reopening the American West. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1998.
• Saving the Planet: the American Response to the Environment in the Twentieth Century. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2000.
• The Making of Modern Nevada. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2010.
• The New Urban Park: Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Civic Environmentalism. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2004.
• with Daniel J. Holder. Promise Beheld and the Limits of Place: a Historic Resource Study of Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountains National Parks and the Surrounding Areas. Washington, DC : U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service, 1998.
• with Gerald D. Nash and Richard W. Etulain. The Greening of a Nation?: Environmentalism in the United States since 1945. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998.
• with Lincoln Bramwell. Playing the Odds : Las Vegas and the Modern West. Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press, 2007.
• with Mike Davis, The Grit beneath the Glitter: Tales from the Real Las Vegas. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. ISBN 978-0-520-22538-1
• with William P. Clements. The Culture of Tourism, the Tourism of Culture: Selling the Past to the Present in the American Southwest. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2003.