"A captivating portrait of a complicated man."- St. Louis Post- Dispatch

"Requires us to acknowledge two essential truths that are easy to forget: That where Disney ended up is not where he began and that his stupendous success arose from . . . his heartfelt understanding of and sympathy with average Americans and their hopes, fears, and values'"- Washington Post

"Steve Watts is both a scholar and a Disneyphile, which makes him an ideal author for this much-neded volume about Walt Disney's place in American culture. It told me things I didn't know before, but even more important, it made me think about things I already knew."-Leonard Maltin, author of The Disney Films

" The Magic Kingdom is a most impressive achievement. . . . More than a first-rate biography, this extraordinarily lucid book- -a work at once of genuine empathy and unsparing criticism-is cultural history at its best."-Robert Westbrook, author of John Dewey and American Democracy

"As true a picture as I could have imagined."-Fess Parker

"This exhaustively researched and remarkably judicious volume should remain our best source on Walt Disney and his manifold enterprises for many years to come."- Journal of American History

"This lively, witty, and insightful study is likely to become a standard."- Library Journal

"Mr. Watts is to be congratulated for producing a subtle, generous-minded account of [the Disney] legacy, and for reminding readers, after so much Disney-bashing, that there was a bright as well as a dark side to the magic kingdom." - The Economist

"The most responsible and comprehensive book on Disney's relationship to American culture in a long while." - Seattle Times

"An immensely thorough, thoughtful survey and syntheses of some sixty years of commentary about Disney, intertwined with Watts' own remarkable perceptive assessments."- Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Relying on a mountain of archival and interview material, Watts does a masterful job of keeping the sometimes contradictory strands of Disney's life and work together."- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"A thoughtful and well-researched biography . . . which also provides a starting point for thinking about the Disney legacy today."- Commentary

"A fine example of academic research that is fully accessible to a nonacademic audience."- Dallas Morning News

"An admirable even-handed work. . . . Stands well above the current, permissively silly academic standards for the discussion of pop culture. . . . A new perspective."- Washingtonian Monthly