It's All a Game

[A] timely book . . . a wonderfully entertaining trip around the board through 4000 years of game history. —The Wall Street JournalBoard games have been with us even longer than the written word. But what is it about this pastime that continues to captivate us well into the age of smartphones and instant gratification?In It''s All a Game Tristan Donovan British journalist and author of Replay: The History of Video Games opens the box on the incredible and often surprising history and psychology of board games. He traces the evolution of the game across cultures time periods and continents from the paranoid Chicago toy genius behind classics like Operation and Mouse Trap to the role of Monopoly in helping prisoners of war escape the Nazis and even the scientific use of board games today to teach artificial intelligence how to reason and how to win. With these compelling stories and characters Donovan ultimately reveals why board games—from chess to Monopoly to Risk and more—have captured hearts and minds all over the world for generations.Splendid . . . A quick and breezy read it doesn''t just tell the fascinating stories of the (often struggling) individuals who created our favorite games. It also manages to convey the entire sweep of board game history from the earliest forms of checkers to modern-day surprise hits like Settlers of Catan. —MashableArtfully weaves together culture business and ways games impact society. —BooklistA fascinating and insightful discussion not only of games past but the socioeconomic and historical factors that contributed to their popularity. —Chicago Review of Books