Sea World: A New Breed of Amusement

Decades ago, the parameters of acceptability for historical research and writing were fairly well defined. Wars, white males, and the rise and fall of ancient civilizations all fell neatly within these boundaries, and thus were examined and reexamined. Several biographies of John Hanson and possibly too many analyses of the Civil War typified the published scholarship of this era. In the last twenty-five years, however, the profession of researching and writing history has experienced a revolutionary transformation, finally including many more grassroots topics of study, such as sex, emotion, and the lives of the poor. Even as these boundaries of “acceptability” broadened, clearly understood lines still continued to exist, only to be redrawn. With biographies and diplomacy largely passe, university presses refocused on the new wave of social history.

This transformation, however, was more of a palace coup than an egalitarian revolt. Rather than opening the discipline to all comers and potential areas of study, the new masters of the craft just redefined the borders of serious and publishable history. Topics outside this updated definition, or those borrowing methodologies from other disciplines, were often deemed superfluous or quirky, usually receiving minimal acceptance and attention. There seemed to be almost an unwritten rule that a certain topic/book was not scholarly if the reading public would want to buy it at their local mall bookstore; regardless of the updated focus, serious history must still only be for other historians. Only very recently, as many presses now fight for economic survival, are these quirky, popular, and marginalized topics being published and finally gaining scholarly recognition. The pleasant surprise for many historians is that this new genre of scholarship—often examining the more mundane aspects of mainstream commercial culture—actually addresses and answers some crucial questions about recent American society and life. One such study that typifies this “new breed” of scholarship is Susan G. Davis’ Spectacular Nature: Corporate Culture and the Sea World Experience.

In Spectacular Nature, Davis focuses a serious scholarly eye on the unique Sea World chain, providing a comprehensive overview of its thirty-five year history and a thorough analysis of its influence on American culture. She examines the origins of the first Sea World park, how it became entrenched in the San Diego landscape, and how it later became a “chain” of virtually identical parks across America. Rather than just chronicling the relatively brief history of this theme park chain, however, she places it on a historical continuum with earlier public places and spaces. Her comparatively brief analysis in this area is superb. Davis also painstakingly describes the current status of the parks, detailing both their day-to-day functions, and what she views as their rather nefarious role in manipulating modern culture. This latter and dominant focus veers away from recognizable history into the realm of agenda-laden investigative journalism.

The best feature of Spectacular Nature is its brief, but insightful, analysis of how Sea World and other modern parks are the successors to a long and colorful lineage of public gathering and amusement places. In her introduction, Davis discusses how the theme parks of today serve the same social function as earlier public spaces, such as the city parks or squares, and how these originally free and public forums gradually lost ground to privatized and commercialized gathering places. Comparing Sea World to early circuses, amusement parks (the prototypical theme parks) and zoos, Davis documents the consistent demand for such places of entertainment and their evolutionary growth in both size and perceived importance over the past century. Beginning with a brief discussion of Coney Island, she builds on David Nasaw’s and Roy Rosenzweig’s work to show how such “organized amusement zones” became a primary focus of leisure time in the late nineteenth century. The success of Coney Island started a wave of imitators across America, and soon the early amusement park became the leisure time gathering spot everywhere. Although Davis provides...