Theme Parks Books

Most people know Ansel Adams' iconic photographs of gorgeous natural scenery in US national parks. But Adams' passion for national parks went farther than documentation. He was also a forceful advocate who spoke and wrote in defense of preserving wilderness in national parks. This small gem pulls together familiar Adams images of national parks with his writing, both formal and informal, on national parks especially his most beloved Yosemite.

Adams' most significant contribution to conservation was popularizing the concept of wilderness as spiritual retreat; a concept that demands we protect wilderness from too much human use, too much human carelessness, and even too much human love. This is where this book offers something enlightening and became more than just another pretty compilation of Adams' photos. The images illustrate the places his words seek to describe, defend, and protect within the historical context of the national parks system formation and development at critical junctures.

The images are smaller scale than we are used to seeing them; however, they are sharp high-quality reproductions. This is not a comprehensive treatment of Adams' views or a complete compilation of his writing. The selections in this book introduce his views to new readers and remind those, like me, who may have overlooked it that Adams was a serious conservationist.

The Ansel Adams book put together by Barry Pritzker is a nice arrangement of Ansel's great landscape photography. I like the large format of this book, roughly 14" x 12". The photos are gigantic and very beautiful. The size is representative of the work. One of the complaints I have is about the images themselves and the darkness of them. Ansel's work is full of contrast, which I really like about his photographs. However, the shadows in these prints are almost pure black. They should have been enhanced just a tad bit, maybe dodged in the shadow areas for reproduction purposes only. Viewing original prints and reproducing originals are going to have extremely different outputs of tonal range. I do like that the author created an introductory section to familiarize the readers a little more about photography and its roots. It shows pioneers such as Alfred Stieglitz and Paul Strand. It's a segway into the work of Ansel Adams.

I would have loved to see maybe some type of commentary about each image and how it was captured, a type of "Mind's Eye" insight for other photographers to understand the ideas behind the actual work. The title of the book is Ansel Adam's, so I really would have liked to see a little more diversity of his work. I'm pretty sure he must have made a portrait here and there in his entire lifetime. I know he couldn't have devoted his entire life to just landscapes alone. There has to be some other images, that even an Ansel fan like me, has never previously viewed before. I purchased the book because it was Ansel Adam's and his photography is very beautiful. I must be honest, when I opened the book and flipped through it, I was disappointed at the design of the book. It left me wanting more from the book itself. Out of a possible five stars, I would have to say the book is about two and a half stars.

This book is really beautiful. The pictures have been really well selected. I think this book would make a perfect gift for almost anyone, since it has pictures from all over the United States.

Ansel Adams was our photographer-advocate laureate of the national parks. This outstandng volume combines a look at his efforts both to capture the meaning of the parks and to lobby on their behalf. Fortified with a Guggenheim Fellowship in the 1940s, Adams was able to travel throughout the U.S. to visit the many national parks outside of his beloved, native California. This volume greatly benefits from those travels in creating his ideas and the 80 black and white images contained in it.

As Ansel Adams reminds us, "The National Parks, are, indeed a phenomena of an advanced society . . . ." When Yellowstone was established by President Grant in 1872, it was the first national park in the history of the world. Since then, we have been in a race between despoiling our wilderness environment and retaining some of it in national parks. The challenge is heightened by the pressures to commercialize and increase access to wilderness areas. How many people should visit Yosemite each year? These are the questions that Ansel Adams anticipated and helped us address. These questions are even more relevant and important today than when he first raised them. "Possessions, both material and spiritual, are appreciated most when we find ourselves in peril of losing them."

"There is a constant erosion of the concept and the reality of wilderness." Unfortunately, Adams was much more successful as a photographer than in achieving his environmental vision. Will his final epitaph of the future be of someone who captured images of what does not exist any more? I certainly hope not.

I recommend the preface by William A. Turnage very highly to understand Ansel Adams' vision and its effects on our society. The preface also contains a delightful section by Nancy Newhall on what it was like to be Ansel Adams' assistant for his dawn photography treks.

This book contains much more written material by Ansel Adams on conservation and the national parks than in any other book of his photographs that I have seen. I enjoyed reading about his ideas, and they helped me understand his photography better as well. He is trying to show us "the clear realities of Nature seen with the inner eye of the spirit [to] reveal the ultimate echo of God."

As I mentioned in the title to this review, the publisher put these images on pages that are too small to capture the detail of Adams' work in most cases. In fairness to the publisher, I should also point out that remarkable efforts have been made to reproduce these images well in the small format. Compared to other small reproductions of these same images, these are by far the best I have seen.

Some compositions in fact succeed in overcoming the limitations of the page size. These include:

Cliff Palace Ruin, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, 1941

Leaves, Mount Rainier National Park, Washington, 1942

Forest, Early Morning, Mount Rainier National Park, Washington, 1949

Leaf, Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska, 1948

Forest, Beartrack Cove, Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska, 1949

Teklanika River, Denali National Park, Alaska, 1947

Mount McKinley from Stoney Pass, Denali National Park, Alaska, 1948

Cinder Cone in Crater of Haleakala, Haleakala National Park, Hawaii, 1956

Mount Lassen from Devastated Area, Lassen Volcanic National Park, California, 1949

Mount Clarence King, Pool, Kings Canyon National Park, California, 1932

Many of the other photographs will be familiar to Ansel Adams' fans. If you have seen them reproduced in larger sizes, you can use your memory to add the missing detail. In this size though, the details being indistinct is like erasing chapters from a novel. Adams often accentuated reflections of details between different natural features in his compositions. When some details are obscured in small size, the reflections thus are not available to stimulate your mind.

In keeping with the spirit of Ansel Adams, I suggest that you consider becoming active in organizations (like the Sierra Club, which Adams belonged to for many years) that fight to save wilderness areas. If your great grandchildren are ever to experience the spiritual cleansing of the wilderness, we each must act now.

"Solitude, so vital to the individual man, is almost nowhere."

This book is a godsend. Without it, I would have thrown myself to the Animal Kingdom's elephants for lack of appropriate vacation ideas.

If you plan to visit WDW without children, this book gives you a summary of attractions worth seeing, and skips over those less-memorable attractions. However, if you want to see what creates Disney magic for all ages, this may not be the best guide. There are many sites that will charm adult visitors which are simply not mentioned in this book. If you have limited time, and only want to experience the not-to-be-missed attractions, this will give you a quick overview. Reviews of resorts and restaurants are accurate, but again you will be missing out on some of what Disney does best. After all, aren't we here to recapture some of out childhood fantasies? I would use this guide as an outline for my adult vacation, but would do a little more reading as well.

I decided to buy this book as a supplement to Birnbaum's general Disney guide book. It's good, but I'm not sure if the additional information was worth the additional purchase. This book is excellent in terms of describing the various Walt Disney World resorts, but other than that most of the information overlaps with the general guide book. Also, the book seems geared toward older individuals and my girlfriend and I are fairly young (the authors seem to think that couples without kids in Disney World are mostly interested in finding quiet places, but my girlfriend and I are excitement seekers).

I enjoyed reading this book. A very easy read, and fun for anyone planning a trip to WDW in the near future.

This book was a little disappointing because the pictures were not the type a child would be interested in. We bought this for our 2 year old before a trip to the smokies and didn't use it much.

This is another collection of remarkable photographs by Ann and Rob Simpson. Aspiring photographers will be amazed by the quality and in some cases even by the fact that the photographers got the shots at all. Getting close to wild animal babies is difficult and sometimes dangerous.

Fawns, elk calves, owlets, bear cubs, baby reptiles, and other little creatures can be seen and enjoyed here. This beautiful book is suitable for children, adults interested in wildlife, and anyone who likes nature photography.

As far as information goes...this is the book to have. This book details EVERYTHING and for a WDW trip...that is a neccessity. The "dollars $ sense","time-savers", etc. sidebars are full of useful information. The jake ratings are honest and cute, but this reader would have preferred to see adult ratings also. This book is the most complete guide with important details of traveling to FL. It is well worth the $$.

While I found this book to be helpful in choosing a place to stay in Orlando for a trip to the Disney and Universal theme parks, I was very disappointed when, after buying it, I realized that the text of this "2000 edition" was actually written BEFORE the Universal Studios Islands of Adventure park opened to the public. So, obviously, the information it offered about the park was minimal at best. ALSO -- if you are an expereienced traveller, you may find the book's lengthy passages about how to book a trip to be unnecessary.

This is a very thoughtful and provocative collection of eight essays on various simulated spaces which have infiltrated the American landscape. The book's overall thesis is that public space and "authentic" urban life increasingly has been replaced by simulations of urban life, usually as spaces of commodification (e.g. malls, gentrified districts, theme parks). In this process of replacing public space, aspects of American public life--open space for assembly, the interaction of different people, concern for communities--also get erased. While simulated spaces may seem to improve public space and public life, they do so at a cost, one that the critics seem to suggest is the loss of real public space and perhaps even of democracy.

The purpose of this book is not only to describe these spaces, but to oppose them. Each of the authors point to the negative effects of simulated space. In many cases, the essays' implications jump right out of the page and into your neighborhood. Margaret Crawford's essay on the Edmonton shopping mall could be applied to any mall in Anytown, USA. Neil Smith's essay on gentrification points out the high price that comes with "revitalization"; one is reminded of many similiar projects outside his NYC example: Philadelphia, Detroit, Seattle,and so forth. Edward Soja and Trevor Boddy both contribute well-written essays which demonstrate growing chasm between the "haves" and the "have-nots." With these essays, extended and local comparisons with dying urban areas and suburbia, sprawl, gated communities, and so forth are appropriate. Michael Sorkin's own essay on Disneyland turns a well-wrought phrase, and gives the Disney Studies scholar much to think about. (NOTE: Those interested in Disney should read this article if nothing else in the collection, although many of the essays are applicable to the study of Disney.) Of the essays, it is perhaps the one least obviously applicable to "real" life. But then again, Sorkin notes the distance between the simulated environment of the theme park and the reality of the city is decreasing.

Of course, the scholars' analyses are dark and even depressing. And more than once, the authors manage to sound like angry young critics filled with more agenda than action. More than once, extended discussion of the issues raised in the essays would have helped--although many of these authors do have full-length treatments elsewhere--or perhaps alternative perspectives which would have varied the collection's tone and helped sustain readers' interest. And like any collection some of the essays are stronger than others. Overall, though, the collection makes a reader stop and think. Many readers will end up carefully reconsidering 1) the state of American life and its public space and 2) one's participation in these developments. Variations deserves recognition for addressing these issues.

This book enlists many different authors, who all have an amazing point of view on the built environment. From gated communities to Disneyland, every chapter expresses concerns of fast-changing developed environments. Our cities are quickly becoming cold, enclosed enclaves. This book helped me realize how our society has snubbed the utilizaton of public space. This is definitely a book for every person interested in city planning, urban studies,or sociology. Whether a student or leisure reader, this book will open your minds to what is really taking place in our cities, suburbs, resorts, and recreational facilities. Any place in which society is forced to interact with one another is referred to in "Variations on a Theme Park". Read it. It will open your mind!

Having read many books on Yosemite, I always find a new take on the material to be refreshing. And while there are other books which use rephotography (taking a new photo in the exact same location as an old photo), the photos in this book are nonetheless spectacular. There are several tri-fold pullouts which are pieced together panoramic views incorporating both new and old photos. The book isn't all photos, as there are quite a few pages of text, telling the story of how the book came to be and about the history of yosemite's photographers.

I liked the idea of re-doing Eadweard Muybridge photos. I was amazed at how the photos were re-done. To see how they looked years later was very interesting. Sadly, History is always written by those who won the war...or those who helped with that war. In the book it states that the Miwoks were the original Native Americans of Yosemite Valley. That is really not correct. The Miwoks were the ones who were the guides and helpers of James Savage. Chief Bautista of the Miwoks and James Savage were actaully allies. Other groups that later became Miwoks helped James Savage scout out the Yosemites and guide them to the hidden camps of the Yosemites, who were in fact Mono Paiutes.

That is a sad chapter of the TRUE history of Yosemite. That now the Miwoks are claiming to be the original Indians of Yosemite when they were the ones who assisted James Savage and the Mariposa Battalion.

That is the truth and you can read that in Lafayette H. Bunnell's book "Discovery of the Yosemites". Bunnell was the only man to meet Chief Tenaya.

Read that book first, but get an unabridged first print or older print of that book.

This is a great resource for any lover of amusement parks, particularly their history. It has incredible detail - even listing the years individual attractions opened - and great historical photos to complement the text. The writing leaves something to be desired, and is a bit formulaic (he uses phrases like "on the rebound" and "(name of park) is one of the most (adjective) amusement parks around" a little too frequently), but the book is packed with so much information about the parks' current statuses and their histories that this can be easily overlooked.

Authors Brian Merlis and Lee Rosenzweig have produced a marvelous retrospective of Park Slope, Brooklyn, generally in the era 1900-1950, but with added photos from around 1998. The clarity of reproduction makes me want to bring the book to the neighborhood and contrast the scenes then and now. Thankfully, the photos are dated by year. At first I was confused by the geographical directions, but a map check showed me that Fifth Avenue, which I thought north-south, is northeast, southwest. This helped me decode a caption as on page 63, "North side of Fifth Avenue, southwest from Flatbush Avenue." I praise the authors' selection of photos for inclusion of people. Rarely is a photo murky. The Fifth Avenue el disappeared before my time, but I well recall the PCC streetcars on Seventh Avenue and the older equipment on Fifth, now the route of the crowded B63 bus. The authors must be commended for the historical details, such as identifying the donor of the horse fountain at Sixth and Flatbush, with a bony horse drinking. The captions of bar storefronts comment on the beers advertised. And one could list the movies displayed on movie house marquees. It is a marvel of a book.

Somehow I didn't buy one of the picture books available locally when I visited this fabulous area so I've been trying to find a memento for several years. This is a very nice find, full of excellent, but somewhat modest, photos.