Customer Reviews

Monopoly: The Story Behind the World's Best-Selling Game

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4 star:		(4)
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2 star:		(1)
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This is a great little book that takes a historical look at the game we all love and the story behind it. It starts off with a little bit of the history of the game itself, from Elizabeth Magie's original invention to the worldwide phenomenon the game became.

However, the book mainly focuses on describing the streets, railroads and sites that have given their names to the game board spaces. The book describes them mostly as they were around the time that Monopoly was being invented.

The book is beautifully illustrated with antique photographs and postcards, and shows Atlantic City in a more glamorous and classy era than the current neon-sign-and-big-hair place that it has become.

While the book does not cover more than a little bit about the game itself, it does put it into a fun historical context.

This book is basically a history of Atlantic City during the time that the boardgame Monopoly was being invented. The book is not so much about the game itself but the locations that are on the game board. The book goes into the history of all the locations on the board by color and explained to the reader what Boardwalk was like in the 1930s or how Marvin Gardens got misspelled and other tidbits. It rather a short book overall and its give a pretty good understanding basic values of locations in terms of Atlantic City to the boardgame.

Of course, the Atlantic City that being described in this book no longer exist. Much like St. Charles Place no longer exist but this book does allowed the reader to know that the game was based on actual locations that one time, had values which was reflected on the game board. I think that was the purpose of this book.

If you've ever wondered what the real Atlantic City streets looked like from the original Monopoly board, wonder no more.
You can see why this town captured the imagination of the early inventor and promoters of the game. A quintessential American city that abounds with quirky architectural hotels, amusement piers and an elephant structure! The colored panels on the board will never tbe the same as they come alive with images of a wacky American resort and lots of information that reassure us why we all love this game.

LOVED this book! Seeing the places around the board come to life was great fun! Using antique post cards to bring the places around the board to life was a very innovative concept. Mr. Kennedy's love of the game comes through. I found the history very interesting as well. It's a valentine to both Monopoly and to Atlantic City. It evoked great memories of whiling away long afternoons trying to outwit my friends. I was not always successful, but it sure was fun -- and so is the book!

Bought this book to quench my love and interest in the game of Monopoly. This book delivered, by going into detail how the game was developed and the history behind all of the features and names of the game. It also went into some strategy and probabilities on return, not too much though. This book is for every Monopoly lover out there. I bought the hardcover edition, very nice and colorful.

If you are looking for a guidebook on developing strategies on winning Monopoly games, look elsewhere. This book does a fantastic job of explaining the history behind the streets and places printed on a Classic Monopoly gameboard. The postcards are diverse and even cover Baltic Avenue. The postcards are from when the Monopoly game was issued nationally and earlier. This book makes a great present for someone who enjoys playing Monopoly and wants to more about the background and real-world history of the locations on the traditional game.

"Taking a walk on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City was an excursion into a wonderland of grand hotels, amusement piers stocked with colorful rides and marquee performers, and arcades full of games and sweet treats of every description. The Boardwalk was part avenue, part grandstand." ~ pg. 65

If you loved playing MONOPOLY and wondered how this game got it start, then this is the story behind this beloved pastime. Since the game is based on real-life locations in Atlantic City, this book is filled with lovely pictures of the area. The main chapters include:

Go
The Game - A Brief History of MONOPOLY
The Place - A Brief History of Atlantic City
The Railroads
The Properties
The Utilities
Chance and Community Chest
Free Parking
Passing Go

One of the most interesting pictures is one of the original circular game boards from 1933 and a square board from 1932. There is also a drawing of the origins of the game as patented by Lizzie Magie in 1904. Most of the book then focuses on the properties and other fun things like salt water taffy.

~The Rebecca Review

The book was informative. The history of Atlantic City was interesting, but I was more interested in the game itself. I would like to see a book with more on the different editions of MONOPOLY and tons of pictures of games...not Atlantic City postcards.

It's possible to write an outstanding book about a board game. It's called "Word Freak," by Stephan Fatsis, and it's a bizarre and engaging look into the world of competitive Scrabble.

"Monopoly: The Story Behind the World's Best-Selling Game" is not even in the same league as "Word Freak." Most of the book actually is about Atlantic City, not Monopoly. There are a couple of pages of the history of the game, along with some neat photos of original versions (a round board!), but after that, the book goes downhill. The rest of the book is basically a discussion of the namesakes of the properties on the Monopoly board (which are all named after streets in Atlantic City). There's plenty of historical photos of the city, but not much else in the way of Monopoly.

What I wanted to read about was the game. The book briefly mentioned house rules, but I wanted much more on that. How were the tokens decided on? Why do the games no longer include the cannon and battleship tokens? What about Monopoly tournaments? I've even heard about *underwater* Monopoly tournaments, but there's no mention of them here. How about strategies to win? How about a listing of all the many, many variations of the game?

There's so much you could do with this book, but the author chose to take a different route. He should have used a different title, too, because this book doesn't live up to the one he chose.