Customer Reviews

The Story of American Toys: From the Puritans to the Present

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When this book was published in 1990, its author claimed it was the most up to date history to date, and would do until something else came along. Many something elses have since come along, but even in 1990 this book was not definitive. If you can't write without a sneer about a subject, don't write about it. The subtitle is "From the Puritans to the Present" and O'Brien cannot mention the Puritans without a sneer. Never mind that he doesn't know anything about them.

The second thing you ought not to do in a book like this is write at length and lovingly about particular pieces and then show photos of something else. It's very surprising that Abbeville Press, which makes some of the most beautiful art books in the world, couldn't do better with this one. The third thing not to do in such a book is give an overview of another book you've already written. If I didn't know that the author had written at length about toy soldiers, I could certainly guess it from this book, which is disproportionately devoted to them. It makes sense an author would major in the area he or she enjoyed and was an expert in, but some of the rest of the book could certainly do with more research.

The fourth thing one ought not to do in a book is fail to check facts or write in a way that puzzles the reader. The author majors in this. In his view, Bandai made Hasbro's Transformers, with no mention of their creation by Takara. He also says that Tonka was the first company, in 1970, to begin marketing in food stores. A paragraph later he mentions Topper Toys. But Topper Toys was the new name of Deluxe Reading, which had marketed their toys in food stores in the 'sixties.

So why three stars? This book seems to be entirely assembled out of industry bulletins and statistics from toy magazines. That said, however, these statistics are fascinating, as are the interpretations the author puts on them. That brings up the fifth thing one ought not to do in a book: name it something as all- encompassing as "The Story of" or "The History of" anything, which is simply asking for hawk- eyed readers to point out what's missing.

Compare this with Tim Walsh's 2005 Timeless Toys (also called The Playmakers). It's subtitle is: "Classic toys and the playmakers who created them". No attempt to cover everything. Rather, Walsh focuses on what he's interested in and what he can do well, as perhaps, O'Brien does in his other, more specialized books. Walsh also made a list of criteria by which he chose what to put in his book. "If your favorite toy was excluded," he advises, "I encourage you to write your own book". O'Brien may get the casual observer a bit more interested in the history of toys, but don't fail to check Walsh for the rest of the story.