The pursuit of fun is a most American activity. Amusement parks developed as places where fun is the most important business, available year round, for a price. Since their creation in the late nineteenth century, amusement parks have changed as the culture has changed, but their appeal has remained constant. Amusement parks, with their games, rides, performances, and exotic foods, create a small separate world, away from the cares of everyday life, where having fun and being excited are the only demands made on the visitors.

From earliest times, people all over the world brightened their daily work lives with fairs and festivals. Circuses and other traveling shows made their rounds, creating a holiday when they arrived in town. Amusement parks differed from these events because they were permanent. In 1893, the rides and displays at the Chicago World's Fair (see entry under 1900s—The Way We...