The Amuse­ment Park is a rich, anec­do­tal his­to­ry that begins nine cen­turies ago with the plea­sure gar­dens of Europe and Eng­land, and ends with the rise and fall and rise again of some of the most elab­o­rate mod­ern parks in the world. It’s a his­to­ry told large­ly through the sto­ries of the col­or­ful, some­times nefar­i­ous char­ac­ters who built them — show­men like Joseph and Nicholas Schenck and Mar­cus Loew, rail­road barons such as Andrew Mel­lon and Hen­ry E. Hunt­ing­ton — and those who ulti­mate­ly destroyed them, includ­ing Robert Moses and Fred Trump. The many gift­ed arti­sans and crafts­peo­ple who brought these parks and their rides to life are also fea­tured, along with a jaw-drop­ping cast of sup­port­ing play­ers, from Al Capone to Annie Oak­ley. Parks fea­tured include the 1893 Chica­go World’s Fair, Coney Island, Chicago’s Riverview, Cleveland’s Euclid Beach, Sandusky’s Cedar Point, New Jersey’s Pal­isades Park, San Francisco’s Play­land, Fer­rari World Abu Dhabi, Tivoli, Europa-Park, Black­pool Plea­sure Beach, Dol­ly­wood, Sea World, Six Flags, Uni­ver­sal, the var­i­ous Dis­ney Worlds and Lands, and many more.