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Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World's Favorite Board Game
by Mary Pilon
The Monopolists reveals the unknown story of how Monopoly came into existence, the reinvention of its history by Parker Brothers and multiple media outlets, the lost female originator of the game, and one man's lifelong obsession to tell the true story about the game's questionable origins.
Most think it was invented by an unemployed Pennsylvanian who sold his game to Parker Brothers during the Great Depression in 1935 and lived happily - and richly - ever after. That story, however, is not exactly true. Ralph Anspach, a professor fighting to sell his Anti-Monopoly board game decades later, unearthed the real story, which traces back to Abraham Lincoln, the Quakers, and a forgotten feminist named Lizzie Magie who invented her nearly identical Landlord's Game more than thirty years before Parker Brothers sold their version of Monopoly. Her game - underpinned by morals that were the exact opposite of what Monopoly represents today - was embraced by a constellation of left-wingers from the Progressive Era through the Great Depression, including members of Franklin Roosevelt's famed Brain Trust.
A fascinating social history of corporate greed that illuminates the cutthroat nature of American business over the last century, The Monopolists reads like the best detective fiction, told through Monopoly's real-life winners and losers.
"Starred Review. Dry concepts such as brand identity and copyright are deftly woven to create a compelling and seamless story that many readers will find more entertaining than the game itself." - Publishers Weekly
"The book abounds with interesting tidbits for boardgame buffs but treats its subject seriously." - Booklist
"A fascinating, appealingly written history of an iconic American amusement." - Kirkus
"This is a must read for anyone who loves the game, and really, who doesn't?" - Erik Larson, author of
"What enormous fun this book is! Clever, engaging, finely crafted, and endlessly surprising - and revealing in passing much about the ghastliness of American corporate greed." - Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and the Madman (and many other bestselling books)
"Mary Pilon has discovered an enthralling story behind Monopoly, as much a history of our country as of its favorite game. She writes with the assurance and energy of a historian who knows she has struck gold." - Gay Talese
"America's toy chest is stuffed with games whose origins belie their shiny packaging and family-fun marketing - none more than Monopoly. Mary Pilon's page-turning narrative unravels the innocent beginnings, the corporate shenanigans, and the big lie at the center of this iconic boxed board game." - Stefan Fatsis, author of Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players
"Thanks to Mary Pilon's meticulous reporting and mellifluous prose, we now know the real story of the corporate greed and relentless cover-up that scars Monopoly, one of the most beloved and successful board games of all time. Finally, the truth is out." - William D. Cohan, author of The Last Tycoons
This information about The Monopolists was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Mary Pilon is an award-winning sports reporter at the New York Times. She was previously a staff reporter at the Wall Street Journal for the paper's Money and Investing section. In 2011, she was named one of Forbes magazine's 30 Under 30 for media. Her work has appeared in Gawker, USA Today, and New York magazine and she is an honors graduate of New York University. She lives in New York. Visit her website at marypilon.com and follow her on Twitter at @marypilon.
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