Watts, Steven

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Watts, Steven

PERSONAL: Male. Education: University of Missouri, B.A., 1975, Ph.D., 1984; University of Virginia, M.A., 1978.

ADDRESSES: Office—University of Missouri, Department of History, 101 Read Hall, Columbia, MO 65211-7500. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer, historian, and educator. University of Missouri—Columbia, professor and chair of history department, 2000–. Appeared in television documentaries Makers of the Twentieth Century and Money and Power.

AWARDS, HONORS: Provost's Outstanding Junior Faculty Teaching Award, 1988, and William T. Kemper Teaching Award, 1995, both University of Missouri-Columbia; National Historical Society annual book prize for The Republic Reborn.

WRITINGS:

The Republic Reborn: War and the Making of Liberal America, 1790–1820, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1987.

The Romance of Real Life: Charles Brockden Brown and the Origins of American Culture, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1994.

The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1997.

The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century, Alfred A. Knopf (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to journals and publications such as Journal of American History, American Quarterly, Journal of the Early Republic, and American Studies.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the Fantasy Life of Modern America.

SIDELIGHTS: Writer, scholar, and educator Steven Watts is an historian whose books focus on prominent concepts and personalities in American culture. His academic specialty is the cultural and intellectual history of the United States, noted a biographer on the University of Missouri Department of History Web site. He has appeared on television documentary programs, including Makers of the Twentieth Century, where he discusses issues related to his work on Walt Disney, and Money and Power, which includes material on Watts's work on Henry Ford.

In The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life Watts explores the sometimes convoluted, sometimes controversial path Disney took from "an unknown name to a studio to a conglomerate to something approaching a way of life, both celebrated and derided," commented Steve Kurtz in Reason. Born on December 5, 1901, Disney grew up on a farm in Marceline, Missouri, where his father was a stern, sometimes violent man with socialist tendencies. Disney demonstrated early talent in art, and he earned extra money drawing illustrations for advertisements and newspapers. A couple of abortive attempts at starting an animation studio, one with his friend, legendary animator Ub Iwerks, did not dampen Disney's entrepreneurial spirit. Disney also lost control of a lucrative property, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, but he recovered spectacularly from that loss; in near desperation, he created Mickey Mouse, the character that would become as iconic as Disney himself.

Mickey Mouse debuted in the 1928 animated feature, Steamboat Willie, the first cartoon with sound. On the basis of this technological advancement and engaging character, Disney built his empire. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the Disney Studio turned out cartoons featuring Mickey and his growing clan of cohorts such as Pluto, Goofy, Minnie Mouse, and the phenomenally popular Donald Duck. Disney entered the world of full-length animation in 1937 with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Other classics quickly followed, including Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi. During these heady years, Disney was widely lauded as a genius, and industry awards and financial success came readily. Things began to sour during an animators' strike in 1941. The studio produced many hours of animation during World War II yet suffered financially. In many ways, Disney never recovered from the devastation of the bitter labor dispute, which had irreparably altered the way he interacted with his animators. The Disney studios had an unprecedented second chance during the 1950s, with more successful animation aided by enormously popular live-action films. The Mickey Mouse Club flourished on television, and Disney began expanding into other venues, including theme parks. Disneyland became the embodiment of American values and wholesome fantasy.

"Portrayed as neither devil nor saint, Disney emerges as a human and sometimes sympathetic figure," remarked Stephen Rees in a Library Journal review of The Magic Kingdom. "Watts has produced an admirably even-handed work that should hold considerable interest even for those cynical souls who find themselves congenitally out of sympathy with the Disney aesthetic," commented reviewer Clifford Doerksen in Washington Monthly. Daniel J. Silver, writing in Commentary, noted that Watts's "well-researched and thoughtful biography … provides a starting point for thinking about the Disney legacy today." Rees observed that the "lively, witty, and insightful study is likely to become a standard." Booklist reviewer Mike Tribby stated that "this valuable, unique book … will be greatly valued by fans, cynics, and semioticians alike." Watts "knows his subject thoroughly, can write about it readably, and has packed lots of new and useful information into this volume," observed James Bowman in National Review.

In The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century "Watts offers a magisterial and balanced biography of one of America's business legends," commented a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Growing up on a farm in Michigan, Ford took a keen interest in the workings of farm machinery. He became an engineer and moved to Detroit, where he quickly earned a reputation as a technical expert on engines. In 1898 he produced the prototype of his Model A vehicle, setting up the business that would become the Ford Motor Company and that would make him tremendously wealthy.

Even though Ford was responsible for introducing fundamental cultural milestones into American society, such as the automobile and the assembly line, he had a dark side as well. Bigoted and anti-Semitic, Ford could endorse education for all children while still "fomenting unbridled hatred toward all Jewish people," stated Library Journal contributor Ed Goedeken. His later life was plagued with sometimes bizarre behaviors, imagined conspiracies, and fabricated enemies. In The People's Tycoon Watts delves into the contradictions in Ford's personality and, in particular, his difficulty in accepting and moving into the modern age. He "brilliantly reveals the contradictions of Ford's business philosophy and his personal and work life," noted the Publishers Weekly contributor. Watts "lauds Ford as a visionary, moralist, and positive thinker, [but] he also paints him as a bigot and a despot," noted Alex Taylor III in Fortune.

The People's Tycoon is "an exceptional biography of an exceptional man," noted Goedeken. Kirkus Reviews critic called the book "a smoothly written, comprehensive life of a man at once complex and superficial—truly an icon of the modern age."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, 1998, Mike Tribby, review of The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life, p. 762.

Commentary, March, 1998, Daniel J. Silver, review of The Magic Kingdom, p. 78.

Fortune, July 25, 2005, Alex Taylor III, "The Many Sides of a Pioneering Capitalist," review of The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century, p. 201.

Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2005, review of The People's Tycoon, p. 531.

Library Journal, February 15, 1998, Stephen Rees, review of The Magic Kingdom, p. 145; June 1, 2005, Ed Goedeken, review of The People's Tycoon, p. 144.

Nation, March 16, 1998, Ernest Larsen, review of The Magic Kingdom, p. 31.

National Review, February 23, 1998, James Bowman, review of The Magic Kingdom, p. 52.

New Republic, June 15, 1998, Jackson Lears, review of The Magic Kingdom, p. 27.

Publishers Weekly, November 24, 1997, review of The Magic Kingdom, p. 61; June 27, 2005, review of The People's Tycoon, p. 53.

Reason, July, 1998, Steve Kurtz, review of The Magic Kingdom, p. 66.

Washington Monthly, March, 1998, Clifford Doerksen, review of The Magic Kingdom, p. 46; July-August, 2005, Benjamin Wallace-Wells, "Reverse Engineering: Henry Ford Created the Future with His Eyes on the Past," review of The People's Tycoon, p. 55.

Washington Post, August 14, 2005, Lizabeth Cohen, "Engine of Change," review of The People's Tycoon.