• Explores the history, growth, and diversity of the Latinx population.
• Draws on an array of census data, voter surveys, statistics, interviews, and health, education, employment, wages, and immigration statistics.
• Evaluates key trends in employment, education, religion, and health.
• Analyzes the dynamics of political participation, including implications of a growing Latino political electorate in a western swing state.
• Assesses key determinants of health disparities, educational inequities, and civic engagement among Latinos in the state.
• Demonstrates the impact of the Great Recession of 2008 and provides a preliminary assessment of the COVID-19 pandemic on Latino employment.

Nevada Wolf Pack football coach Chris Ault is unlike any other college football coach in history. He spent his entire coaching career, from 1976 to 2012, at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he elevated a football program with very little notoriety onto the national stage, winning 234 games and earning a place in the College Football Hall of Fame. Ault’s innovative “Pistol” offense, established in the 2004–2005 season, revolutionized college football and ushered in its modern high-scoring offensive style. 

Yet perhaps beyond the offensive genius Ault brought to the college game, he was also a masterful showman. He built interest in a previously moribund program with publicity stunts like inviting military tanks into Mackay Stadium and having them blast non-live rounds into the sky whenever the Wolf Pack scored a touchdown. He wrote victory songs for the Wolf Pack to sing in the locker room following every win. His teams marched through downtown Reno in military formation while wearing full game uniforms. He delivered stirring halftime speeches that led to improbable comebacks, including the single greatest football comeback in NCAA history. He found common personal ground with young Wolf Pack athletes and developed talent like Colin Kaepernick, who developed into one of the greatest college quarterbacks the sport had ever seen. 

Through his unconventional coaching methods, his fervent belief that the University of Nevada, Reno, was the finest institution of higher learning in the land, and his innate, creative, and intuitive understanding of how a winning football program can unite people, Ault brought the people of Northern Nevada together in a way that no one has replicated since. Chris Ault was the rare college football coach who came to campus as a starting quarterback, stayed throughout his career as a coach, and left a mark that will never be equaled.

Like Friends, Like Foes offers a comprehensive analysis of how Nevada residents responded and reacted to the “Japanese Question” during World War II. Both before and during the war, the experience of Japanese American residents of Nevada varied widely. Once the war started, Japanese immigrants experienced an unusual case of mass internment from the mining towns of Ruth and McGill, Nevada, while Japanese American railroad workers and their families, scattered across the state, faced sudden layoffs and evictions. At the same time, most of the Japanese Americans living in Nevada fared much better than their counterparts who resided in the surrounding states.

Andrew Russell’s study examines how variations in local history and local circumstances generated starkly different perspectives and responses to the supposed “Japanese problems” confronting Nevada’s small communities, the state, and the larger region. While Russell’s interpretive history spotlights some highly unusual developments, it nevertheless offers fresh evidence of how individuals or small groups can play significant roles in combating the abuse of civil rights during times of fear and uncertainty.