Lexington Books
Pages: 270
Trim: 6½ x 9¼
978-1-66693-239-3 • Hardback • August 2024 • $115.00 • (£88.00)
978-1-66693-240-9 • eBook • August 2024 • $50.00 • (£38.00)
Jennifer A. Kokai is director of the School of Theatre and Dance and the Endowed Chair of the Holloway and the Brit at the University of South Florida.
Tom Robson is assistant teaching professor in Purdue University’s Cornerstone Integrated Liberal Arts program.
Introduction: Two Fourths of July at the Magic Kingdom
Chapter One: Voices of Liberty: Disney Parks’ HarmonioUS and CacophonoUS Sonic Performances of American Musical Culture
Chapter Two: Labyrinths and Hyperspace: Escapist Geography and Absented Ecology in American Disney Parks
Chapter Three: “If You Can’t Run Fast, Run Fabulous”: The Evolution of Sporting at Disney and of American Conceptions of “Athlete”
Chapter Four: “Ohana Means Family?” Who Is Included in a Disney Family and Who Is Forgotten
Chapter Five: From Yippies to MAGA Provocateurs: Politicized Tourists Crash the Kingdom
Conclusion: Fist Fights and Friendship Bracelets: Disney Parks as Conflicted Commons
"Jennifer A. Kokai and Tom Robson’s Disney Parks and the Construction of American Identity: Tourism, Performance, Anxiety is a must-read for anyone interested in the serious study of Disney’s theme parks. Astutely weaving together moments of lived personal experience with a range of academic approaches and concepts, the book offers a timely and essential analysis of the ongoing political, social and cultural tensions being played out within the spaces of Walt Disney World."
— Rebecca Williams, University of South Wales
"Jennifer Kokai and Tom Robson once again provide seminal work on Disney theme parks, providing an in-depth study on what they mean to its audiences, and to US society at large. It is without a doubt the book on the parks we need right now, and will provide fertile ground for scholarship for decades to come."
— Sabrina Mittermeier, University of Kassel, author of "A Cultural History of the Disneyland Theme Parks"