Disney's Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World Kindle Edition

Having read just about everything available on the history of the development and design of the original Disneyland park, it's quite honest to say that there is nothing new here. The most recent original scholarship would be "Three Years in Wonderland" by Todd James Pierce, and anything fresh has been basically cribbed from that book by Snow. All of the familiar anecdotes and quotes from the three key Walt Disney biographies (Thomas, Watts, and Gabler) are here, nearly verbatim. And if you have the archives of The "E" Ticket magazine, Snow quotes liberally from those interviews as well. It's nice to see Ruth Shellhorn's key role as formal landscape designer recognized (she gets her own chapter), because until the landmark 2016 Comras biography—and the terrific aforementioned Pierce volume—her role had been quietly forgotten by the Disney company in favor of hagiographic accounts of the Evans brothers.Where Snow really succeeds is that "Disney's Land" is a pleasant, tightly plotted and elegantly written book in a popular voice for a wide audience. That alone is enough to recommend it. If you don't know the particulars of the story, I'd start here and then dip into the bibliography to drill down deeper. Congrats to Snow; this is basically a 'biography' of Disneyland that can sit comfortably on a shelf next to Gabler's "Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination" even if it doesn't present any original scholarship. A solid distillation.

Richard Snow is not only an engaging writer, he's also a master at describing how transformative technologies and inventions happened in 19th and 20th century America, and he makes this fun to read (even for those of us who recoil at screwdrivers and exposed wiring). Snow has achieved this in earlier works (Iron Dawn about the Merrimac and the Monitor, I Invented the Modern Age about Henry Ford's Model T), and he does it again in Disney's Land. His subjects are not always the most appealing. They can have serious flaws, and some critics believe he glosses over these. Snow's interest, however, is not so much with his characters' frailties as with their abilities not only to invent but also to engage and attract others to work with them toward a common vision.His books in general, as well as this one specifically, produce an American story at its best. Snow not only describes with wonderful detail the personalities of his visionaries, like Disney, but also those of the extraordinary people who contributed their own genius, with long hard hours and little financial incentive, to produce new enterprises that opened up vast areas of creativity and invention. In this book, Snow also describes in detail, with elegance and humor, the technological and financial challenges that went into building Disneyland. They were typically complicated, never encountered before, and had solutions that went way outside the boxes of the day.People accuse Disney of building theme parks that present a lie about America, a phony image that's too good, too shallow, a false façade that fails to reveal the cultural darkness underlying our history. In giving us the story of how Disney's Land was built however, Snow is showing an America with generous and brilliant workers who bring meaning to their lives by solving complex problems in harmony with each other for the creation not of a lie but of a fairy tale. We hope these Americans are still around. We all need them.(As an added bonus, his chapter on the mishaps of opening day is nothing less than hilarious.)

Another pumped out mass produced book that really does not cover any new ground. Why does anyone write a new book that has already been written, stop doing this, it only kills more trees for no purpose, what a waste of my time and money.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The suthor's introduction to his subject, in which he explicates his connection to amusement parks generally and to Disneyland, is probably the slowest part of the story! The rest, once Walt Disney himself gets going, is memorable and fascinating! I do wonder about his original motives for building the park -- being primarily about his daughters. The way it's explained in the book doesn't sound substantial enough to hang the entire rest of the story on, in my opinion. Not when you read about what it took to actually GET Disneyland (and the plumbing!) open. By the time Disneyland opens and is a success, the initial justification seems worn thin. But it's all interesting, including how he came up with ideas and how he staked practically everything he had on finishing his project according to his plans in the RIGHT way. Definitely worth reading!

Great story book, really interesting read and yes, some of the information is from other sources - but its a very well written book.

The author paints a vivid picture of the times and the people involved in the creation of the world's most famous amusement park. Very entertaining and informative.

This is a very interesting read for anyone who love Disneyland

Very good book, fast delivery and visually very pretty.