Disneyland and the Rise of Automation
How Technology Created the Happiest Place on Earth
$63.10
- Hardcover
416 pages
- Release Date
28 July 2026
Summary
A history of the engineering marvels behind one of America’s most innovative and beloved entertainment experiences.
When Disneyland opened to the public in 1955, it demystified the hidden world of factory automation through its extraordinary new attractions. In this fascinating book, Roland Betancourt tells the story of how the visionary engineers and designers at Disney transformed the technologies of the postwar assembly line into an entertainment experience unlike …
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780691255873 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0691255873 |
| Author: | Roland Betancourt |
| Publisher: | Princeton University Press |
| Imprint: | Princeton University Press |
| Format: | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages: | 416 |
| Release Date: | 28 July 2026 |
| Weight: | 790g |
| Dimensions: | 121mm x 224mm x 316mm |
You Can Find This Book In
Critics Review
“Illuminating… . provocative… . [and] well-researched… . Disneyland and the Rise of Automation is not just a history of the theme park, it is also a guide to understanding our current technological anxieties and those of the recent past.”—Renée Blackburn, Science Magazine
”[A] fascinating book.”—Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times
“Compelling… . Betancourt’s text, supplemented by a plethora of archival photographs, charts, and other images, is sure to be an important contribution to future discussions of humans versus machines. A superbly researched, structured, and written treatise on how two behemoth 20th-century trends converged.” * Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review *
“
Richly supported by advertisements, comics, TV documentaries, magazine articles, technical drawings, and more, Betancourt’s history contextualizes the public’s changing attitudes toward automation and how its gradual popularity affected—and devalued—human labor, specialization, and unions… . The parallels between automation history and today’s anxiety about AI do make for a timely read.
” * Booklist *“In Roland Betancourt’s Disneyland and the Rise of Automation … I came to better understand my sick fascination with automated “fun.” Betancourt’s book takes us from Walt Disney’s admiration of the conveyor belt at Ford’s auto plant in Dearborn to the minutiae of the Anaheim rides of the fifties and sixties, built from innovations in transportation and recording. Betancourt effectively demystifies the machines that make the magic happen.”—Madeleine Adams, The Baffler
“An intriguing look at how Disney borrowed some of the era’s most popular aspects of factory automation to create his groundbreaking park… . [Disneyland and the Rise of Automation] is full of compelling stories.”—Robert Ito, Alta Journal
“Intriguing.”—Austin Weber, Assembly Magazine
“Disneyland and the Rise of Automation is the kind of book that changes what you notice. After reading it, you will not be able to walk through a theme park, or a fully automated warehouse, or any of the increasing number of spaces in American life where the human and the mechanical are becoming difficult to separate, without thinking about the argument Betancourt has made. That is the highest thing one can ask of a work of cultural history.” * Six Degrees of Robotics *
“Disneyland and the Rise of Automation makes valuable contributions to industrial history and Disney studies… . The broad interest in Disney studies and ongoing business and societal focus on efficiency through operations research expands [the book’s] audience well beyond academic specialists.”—Curtis Frye, Technology and Society
Roland Betancourt
Roland Betancourt is Chancellor’s Professor in the Department of Art History at the University of California, Irvine, and a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow. His books include the prize-winning Byzantine Intersectionality: Sexuality, Gender, and Race in the Middle Ages (Princeton) and Performing the Gospels in Byzantium: Sight, Sound, and Space in the Divine Liturgy.
Returns
This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.