An absolutely fascinating book about our children and commercial culture! A brilliant, lively, and complex analysis by one of the most interesting public intellectuals in the United States-and one that is remarkably fair-minded. Giroux does not deny the real delight that Disney brings our children. What he questions, really, are the 'uses' of delight-and, at a deeper level, the misuse of innocence. All in all, a freshly written, unusually invigorating book that even fans of Mickey Mouse will find compelling.

Jonathan Kozol, National Book Award winner and author of "Savage Inequalities" and "Death at an Early Age"

Lost in the vast wilderness of 'Disney studies?' Henry Giroux's stunning meditation on what the Disney empire teaches children is like having a compass in the enchanted forest. Like all of his work, he never wanders from his ultimate course: a radical democratic vision. Anyone who hopes to challenge the Imagineering of America and the world and promote an educational culture free of corporate domination must read this book.

Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination

Henry Giroux has led the way in contemporary cultural studies in insisting on the need to address the critical question of the effects on children of cultural production and representation. Giroux links the cultural messages promoted by Disney Inc. to the corporate economy, exploitative, and exclusionary practices it at once represents and pushes. In doing so, he faces squarely and analyzes uncompromisingly the implication for democratic politics of culture and desire, education and entertainment, representation and responsibility that most critics fail to register, let alone face.

David Theo Goldberg, Director, Humanities Research Institute, University of California

Henry Giroux's pioneering spirit of inquiry never ceases to impress. Here he opens our eyes to the messages that consumer mass culture sends to our children, our schools, our homes. What you see is not what you get-read this book and learn what that is.

Homi Bhabha, Tripp Professor in the Humanities, University of Chicago

Henry Giroux's provocative study interrogates the pedagogy of the Disney empire, dissecting the many ways that Disney films, advertising, theme parks, and products transmit a view of the world, teach us values, and are thus an important vehicle of socialization and education. This excellent study shows us how cultural studies can address key issues of the contemporary world and provide tools of analysis, critique, and contextualization that enable us to gain critical insight into the cultural forces that shape us and to resist their seductive power.

Douglas Kellner, UCLA; author of Media Culture and Media Spectacle and the Crisis of Democracy

Readers awed by the broad power of Disney Company should read this critical examination.
Ideal supplementary material for students examining the commercialism of American culture.

Booklist