A review by willwork4airfare
Battle for the Big Top: P.T. Barnum, James Bailey, John Ringling and the Death-Defying Saga of the American Circus by Les Standiford

2.0

I am very interested in circus history but this book, while very thorough, is just trying to do too much. It is so long and boring and follows various tangents that get more and more tedious. Long descriptions of architecture or paintings that Ringing bought. Endless mention of how many train cars a circus had. But lacking a lot of details about the performers, the acts, etc. Animal rights controversies are mentioned once or twice as a slight annoyance. There is so much happening here that I did not need to know and far too little about the things I did want. A chore to finish.