The prevalence and influence of "theming" increased so dramatically during the 1990s that theme parks have become a metaphor for postmodern urban life. In particular, critics apply the term "Disneyfication" to any landscape developed to communicate with several audiences, especially when that communication is an attempt to stimulate and direct consumption. Scholars, just as curious and stimulated as the general public and the business community, have prepared numerous explorations of this phenomenon. Nevertheless, few scholarly studies focus on the landscapes of theme parks. The origins, divergence, and significance of theme parks are only beginning to be understood. Most scholars agree that sixteenth - to nineteenth-century European gardens were their major progenitors. How did they enter into mass culture? Why are they so popular? How are they connected to the social order? What functions do they serve? This volume"s authors examine current and past, private and...