Roland Betancourt
Art historian. Author of Disneyland and the Rise of Automation.
Roland Betancourt is Chancellor’s Professor of Art History at the University of California, Irvine, a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow, and the author of Disneyland and the Rise of Automation (Princeton, 2026) and four earlier books on the Byzantine Empire. In addition to the Middle Ages, he writes about theme parks, automation, and the corporations that built modern American life. His essays have appeared in TIME, The Washington Post, Fortune, Smithsonian, and Scientific American.
Now · October 2026
- Teaching “Disneyland: Art, Architecture, and Operation” at the University of California, Irvine
- Leading a graduate seminar, “Art + Automation”
- Disneyland and the Rise of Automation is one of Kirkus’s Best Indie Books of 2026
- Disneyland and the Rise of Automation is in its second printing
- The audiobook is out, read by Al Kessel
- October 25: screening and discussion at the Frida Cinema, Santa Ana
- November: the Themed Experience and Attractions Academic Symposium, Orlando
- December: book talks at Stanford University and the Forest Lawn Museum
- Amusement, Inc. arrives from Duke University Press in March 2027
Latest
- 3–4 Oct 2026Talk and signing, Disneyana Fan ExpoAnaheim
- 20 Aug 2026Science and Society LectureScience History Institute, Philadelphia
- Aug 2026“Byzantine Art,” a three-part courseSmithsonian Associates
- 17 Jul 2026AMA on Disneyland and automationr/AskHistorians
- 16 Jul 2026“Inside Disneyland’s Machine”Business Talk podcast
- 6 Jul 2026How Disneyland Taught Us to Love RobotsZócalo Public Square
- 3 Jun 2026“Disneyland: Cold War Factory”American Prestige
- 28 Apr 2026Disney’s $60 Billion Bet on the One Thing AI Can’t ReplaceFortune
- 27 Apr 2026Walt Disney visited a Ford factory in 1948. What he saw there became Disneyland.Smithsonian
Upcoming
- 23 Oct 2026Panel on Disneyland and the Rise of Automation, with Rachel Plotnick and Amy BixSociety for the History of Technology (SHOT) Annual Meeting, online
- 25 Oct 2026Screening and discussion, Disneyland HandcraftedThe Frida Cinema, Santa Ana
- 20 Nov 2026“Innovation through Aggregation: Disneyland and the Amusement Park Industry of the 1950s”Themed Experience and Attractions Academic Symposium (TEAAS), Orlando
- 2 Dec 2026Book talk with T. L. TaylorSilicon Valley Archives, Stanford University
- 5 Dec 2026Book talkForest Lawn Museum, Glendale
- 16 Jan 2027Panel, “Immersive Art and Entertainment: From Panoramas to Disneyland”Forest Lawn Museum
- 21 Jan 2027Book talkUniversity of Central Florida, Orlando
- 3 Feb 2027“Grounds of the Icon”Earthbound, Bard Graduate Center, New York
- 3–6 Feb 2027Session, “Medieval Metapainting,” co-organized with Ravinder S. BinningCollege Art Association Annual Meeting, New York
- 16 Mar 2027Amusement, Inc. publishesDuke University Press
- 21–24 Apr 2027“Making the World Small: Walt Disney’s ‘it’s a small world’ in the American Century”National Council on Public History, St. Louis
Speaking requests: roland.betancourt@uci.edu
The new book
Disneyland and the Rise of Automation
How Technology Created the Happiest Place on Earth
- ★ Kirkus Star
- Kirkus Best Indie Books of 2026
The story of how the modern theme park was built out of the machines, the methods, and the anxieties of postwar automation. From Walt Disney’s 1948 visit to Ford’s River Rouge plant to the animatronic hosts of the 1960s, the book follows the technologies behind the rides and the ways Americans learned to love, fear, and live with thinking machines.
Audiobook from Tantor Media, read by Al Kessel.
A superbly researched, structured, and written treatise on how two behemoth 20th-century trends converged.Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Not just a history of the theme park, it is also a guide to understanding our current technological anxieties.Science
The kind of book that changes what you notice.Six Degrees of Robotics
Entertaining, revealing, and at times unsettling.BookLife by Publishers Weekly, Editor's Pick
[A] fascinating book.Los Angeles Times
Betancourt effectively demystifies the machines that make the magic happen.The Baffler
Full of compelling stories about the all-too-human creators behind the scenes.Alta Journal
The parallels between automation history and today's anxiety about AI do make for a timely read.Booklist
Highly recommended.Technology and Society
Like a Mickey-shaped, chocolate-covered ice cream bar, this book offers a fused history of industrial automation and theme-park entertainment.Ian Bogost
Deeply researched, brilliantly written, and wonderfully illustrated. A tour de force.Sabrina Mittermeier
A book about Disneyland unlike any other.Tom K. Morris, Walt Disney Imagineer
A brilliant intervention in the history of industrial capitalism.Alex J. Taylor
An original look into the crucial connections between automation and entertainment.David A. Mindell, MIT
All books
