History may not be everyone’s favorite subject, but the history of a game exerts a particular kind of fascination, and one of so popular an American cultural icon as Monopoly can hardly fail to draw crowds. Furthermore, Monopoly is practically unique among modern board games in having a substantial history to trace. Consider why.
Traditional board games like chess, checkers and backgammon are centuries if not millennia old.
Modern board games, in contrast, arise not through evolution but by a known originator’s act of invention, a one-off product of “intelligent design” in a relatively brief period of time. They are published and subject to trade protection such as copyright.
From a creative point of view the most remarkable feature of Monopoly is that it actually falls into both categories, something Huizinga did not anticipate. It is now well known to have originated in a precursor called The Landlord’s Game
clipped from: www.the-american-interest.com