Mouse that Roared - 2nd Edition by Henry A Giroux & Grace Pollock (Paperback)

About the Book

This expanded and revised edition of Henry Giroux's highly acclaimed book explores and updates the cultural politics of the Walt Disney Company and how its ever-expanding list of products, services, and media function as teaching machines that shape children's culture into a l...

Book Synopsis

This expanded and revised edition of Henry Giroux's highly acclaimed book explores and updates the cultural politics of the Walt Disney Company and how its ever-expanding list of products, services, and media function as teaching machines that shape children's culture into a largely commercial endeavor. In addition to updates throughout the book, this edition includes a new discussion of Disney's shift in marketing strategies targeting teens and tweens, a new chapter about globalization and Disney's empire, and a new chapter on Disney and national security after 9/11.

Review Quotes

The Mouse That Roared: Disney And The End of Innocence by Henry A. Giroux and Grace Pollock sets a new standard for the study of Disney and popular culture. It offers new lens to understand the merger between corporate power and corporate culture while unveiling the insidious educational force of pre-packaged culture. This brilliant book should be read by every parent, educator, and youth.

Disney productions carry important cultural authority but until now we have lacked sure-footed guides to unpack the consequences when Disney products get embedded in everyday play, learning, and growing up. Now Henry Giroux and Grace Pollock in their revised and expanded edition of Giroux's pioneering study give us the tools with which to talk back to Disney's world. These tools are especially welcome because other ways of talking back to consumer culture have been relentlessly closed down by neoliberals. This book offers a crucial intervention in cultural politics for any place where Disney products sell.

Henry A. Giroux and Grace Pollock's revised and expanded edition of The Mouse That Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence presents tools, key concepts and analyses, and the context to provide a critical pedagogy of all things Disney. The author's dissection of the Disney Empire shows that it is not only selling entertainment and related products but a way of life and value system that the authors critically unpack. This is a valuable resource for all parents, teachers, and those interested in cultural studies of contemporary culture.

This book has expanded since 1999 (CH, Feb'00, 37-3408), just as the Walt Disney Corporation has. And, caveat emptor, mirroring the Disney empire's covert maneuvers to turn children into consumers, so, ironically, the publisher and the authors (both McMaster Univ.) would have libraries and scholars acquire this edition, which the publisher announces as 'thoroughly revised and updated throughout.' Alternating in tone between popular and pedantic, the book retains its provocative and compelling original stance: Disney wrote on children's tabulae rasae and shaped the cultural imaginations of several generations of American youth. But the authors include two new chapters, one on militarization and one on Disney's current global influence, which extends even to Shanghai. Giroux and Pollock's argument that Disney edits public memory, channels children toward desiring consumption, reconstructs historical narratives (even turning America into a theme park), and controls pedagogy continues to be worthy of debate, and the authors supply fresh and cogent illustrations (e.g., the Jonas Brothers, Pixar, post-9/11 culture) to bolster their claims. This screed against the monopolistic idolatry of Disney still commands attention. Recommended.

About the Author

Henry A. Giroux is the well-known author of many books and articles on society, education, and political culture. He is the Global Television Network Chair in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University.

Grace Pollock recently completed her doctoral degree at McMaster University and a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Western Ontario. Her ongoing research interests include cultural and media studies, historical formations of the public sphere, social policy, and community development.