{"id":6995,"date":"2025-11-06T09:42:34","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T14:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/?p=6995"},"modified":"2025-11-06T09:43:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T14:43:11","slug":"book-review-walt-disney-the-triumph-of-the-american-imagination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/?p=6995","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Walt Disney &#8211; The Triumph of the American Imagination"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Disney.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Disney-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6996\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Disney-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Disney-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Disney-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Disney-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Disney-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Disney-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination<\/em>, by Neal Gabler<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s right! I also read non-fiction! There are a lot of biographies about Walt Disney. This is the one I read, and it seemed very comprehensive and balanced. The big takeaways from this book are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The business was often broke<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Walt believed in himself<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>He loved his wife and kids\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>He liked trains<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>He was sometimes a jerk<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The whole story is fascinating. This book does contain a lot of business talk, with facts and figures explaining the various debts and stocks and money stuff. You can skim over those sections without missing much of the overall life of Disney. But I found some of the business stuff interesting.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reading biographies and nonfiction is always a little tricky because my cynical brain reads every line and thinks, \u201cSays who? You?!\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s not that I think non-fiction writers are lying\u2026but maybe they are? And sure, there are citations and references and all that good stuff, but does anyone check? And does anyone factcheck the checkers? And then who checks the check checkers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Basically, I don\u2019t believe anything unless I see it for myself. This is why I firmly believe France doesn\u2019t exist. Prove me wrong, France. The onus is on you!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>I\u2019m reviewing books every day from now until the new year to help spread the magic of reading <a href=\"https:\/\/us-p2p.e-activist.com\/5547\/reading-is-fundamental\/194681\/dan-bergstein-reading-is-fundamental\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/us-p2p.e-activist.com\/5547\/reading-is-fundamental\/194681\/dan-bergstein-reading-is-fundamental\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Donate to my Reading is Fundamental campaign!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.laserfarm.com%2F%3Fp%3D6995&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;height=80\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;\" allowTransparency=\"true\"><\/iframe>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, by Neal Gabler That\u2019s right! I also read non-fiction! There are a lot of biographies about Walt Disney. This is the one I read, and it seemed very comprehensive and balanced. The &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/?p=6995\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[104],"class_list":["post-6995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-rif2025"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6995"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6998,"href":"https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6995\/revisions\/6998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}