Monopoly: The World's Most Famous Game -- And How It Got That Way

Over 200,000,000 copies of the Monopoly(r) game have been sold worldwide since Parker Brothers first popularized it in 1935, making it the world's most popular proprietary game. Countless special and national editions of the game are now published in over sixty countries. But while Monopoly has global appeal, it is distinctly American -- a symbol of America's system of economic "opportunity." In Monopoly: America's Game, Philip Orbanes, the leading expert on all things Monopoliana, tells the remarkable history of the game, from its predecessor's birth as a teaching tool for an economics class in the first decade of the twentieth century through its explosive growth in the postwar decades to it being a ubiquitous fixture in just about every American home today. Orbanes includes fascinating Monopoly personality portraits, little-known Monopoly legends and lore, and the extraordinary variety of advertising used throughout the twentieth century. This is the first and only book to cover comprehensively the origin, growth, and global impact of the game that has become a cultural icon. This book is not endorsed by Hasbro Games.

Philip E. Orbanes has been the chief judge at Monopoly championships since 1979, and is the author of Game Makers and the bestselling book Monopoly Companion. He lives in Massachusetts.