Reviews

DisneyWar by James B. Stewart

abihayes's review

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dark informative

2.75

tmatysik's review against another edition

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informative tense medium-paced

3.25

tikitoka's review against another edition

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informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

matthewosborne's review against another edition

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informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

I enjoyed this book but found it a tad long. I think some of it could have been cut and still retained the same story of Michael Eisner’s tenure as Disney ceo.

I much preferred the sections of the book prior to the author’s shadowing of Eisner.

bokpetra's review against another edition

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2.0

2.5

pichu0331's review against another edition

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informative medium-paced

5.0

The best book I’ve read in years 

william_sg's review against another edition

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3.0

First half is strong but once it gets to the ABC Family deal, it squanders all of its time on a series of he said/he said and executive backroom drama. Creatives get short shrift as the book becomes more focused on Eisner’s behavior with the board and less on his influence on projects. I wish this was a bit more focused on the creative/entertainment side all the way through. Author is a business/government historian. It shows. Bit of a bummer. Somewhat of a difficult recommend.

jlswitchblades's review against another edition

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funny informative tense slow-paced

4.0

Sarah Marshall mentioned this book on You're Wrong About when I was binging the show, so I decided to check it out. It is an absolute behemoth and helped put me to sleep when I was chipping away at it at night. I didn't realize how dated it was at the time, so I would have loved for a follow-up. But the concept is interesting, and watching Eisner messily dig his own grave is still very entertaining.

jos17's review

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4.0

I got lost in the timelines a fair amount, but I think that was mostly due to the fact that I was a) listening to the audiobook and b) listening to the audiobook mostly at work, so I couldn’t focus as fully on it.

In conclusion, all CEOs are terrible

tonimarie_p's review against another edition

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3.0

I'm a huge Disney fan and love reading about Disney history, but this book was a little disappointing. The introduction and first section, The Wonderful World of Disney, were quite interesting and engaging. However, as the book continued into parts two and three, I found it harder and harder to read. Some of the language got rather boring and repetitive, so I would skim over large sections at a time. On a note more related to personal interest, I found some sections would go in depth on some business and financial related stories that were really not interesting or relevant and could have been told in far fewer words.

As a whole, I would recommend the book to a devout Disney fan who wants to learn more about a time period that is so significant in the company's history and has effected so much of what we see today. I find it pairs nicely with several Disney+ docuseries, like the Imagineering Story and Howard. If you're not a huge Disney fan and don't have much of a background of the main "characters" and settings, you'll probably find yourself disengaged and slightly confused.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but it's certainly not my new favorite.