This is a circus junkie's dream. The book is an excellently researched and written history of the evolution of the Barnum and Bailey Circus to its current manifestation run by Kenneth Feld's daughters. I learned so much about the celebrities and spectacles staged over the years. There are many wonderful visual aids to enhance your enjoyment including one in which well over thirty elephants are posed in tutus each one with its front legs on the back of the one in front. I never fully realized how extravagant it all was. Even today there is so much effort and care put into the production. I wish it was coming to town so I could go. ( )

This reads as if it was assembled from a score of spreadsheets. I suppose such a book could be useful to someone writing or producing a slavishly accurate serial drama about the circus. Barring that it's hard to imagine a scenario wherein reporting the numbers of horses and chorus girls for every era of show is a good use of ink. You see this isn't so much a history of Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey's circus as it is an audit. It's astounding that with such a subject Albrecht can breeze past the use of dyed pigeons or the logistics of an elephant ballet, his focus never deviating from the ledger books, scheduling, acquisitions and management changes. ( )

The book was very well researched and well written. It as a bit dense at times, but overall was an interesting read about the history of, and America's love affair with, the Big Top. ( )

This is a very informative book! Very well researched, very well documented. It tells the history of this circus form the 1850's to the near present. A lot goes on under the big top, a lot politics as well as a lot of very hard work. Organizing the early extravaganzas was a Herculean feat! The changes in the circus are well explained, also. ( )

This wasn't what I expected, but I was pleasantly surprised. I was expecting a more bare bones or encyclopedia type book, but in fact this is a detailed account of the development of the circus. It was sometimes too in-depth for my interest level, but I could still appreciate the level of research that went in to this book. ( )