It's All a Game: A Short History of Board Games

It's All a Game: A Short History of Board Games

by TristanDonovan (Author)

Synopsis

Board games have been with us longer than even 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 renowned games expert Tristan Donovan 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 have captured hearts and minds all over the world for generations.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 336
Edition: Main
Publisher: Atlantic Books
Published: 01 Nov 2018

ISBN 10: 1786494531
ISBN 13: 9781786494535

Media Reviews
[A] timely book... It's All a Game provides a wonderfully entertaining trip around the board, through 4,000 years of game history. * The Wall Street Journal *
Replay is a wonderfully thorough and entertaining history, casting its net wide, but rarely failing to capture the essence of a particular era. * Guardian on REPLAY *
This is the best of all gaming history books. * PC Gamer on REPLAY *
A brisk and hugely readable account of some of the world's great board games and the amazing people who played them. Packed with fascinating tales from ancient Egyptian senet to Google's AlphaGo. Highly recommended. -- Ian Stewart, author of SIGNIFICANT FIGURES
Author Bio
Tristan Donovan is a journalist whose work has appeared on the BBC, in The Times, and in Wired amongst other publications. He lives in Brighton, UK.