Did you know that “when played according to its written rules, the typical Monopoly game lasts less than ninety minutes“?

As someone who stopped playing Monopoly because the game was too long, that fact blew my mind. However, it wasn’t the most interesting fact in this book because the origin of the game Monopoly is even wilder.

In The Monopolists, Mary Pilon traces the history of Monopoly from how it was invented by Lizzie Maggie to advocate for Henry George’s single land tax idea, to how Charles Darrow took the same game, popular among the Quakers, and pretended it was his own and how the truth of the origin of Monopoly was uncovered by Ralph Anspach as he fought to preserve his own Anti-Monopoly game.

As you can imagine, this was a surprising story full of twists. I knew nothing about the history of Monopoly and the fact that it was invented for a woman, and not to promote the idea of monopolies, was shocking. Even if you don’t read this book, although you should, I think you should know that Lizzie Maggie not only invented the game, she managed to get two patents for it! The game then travelled around communities that make me think of the word “hippie”, before becoming popular in the Quaker community in Atlanta. As the game travelled, it was modified slightly and that is how Charles Darrow came across the game. Why he decided to come up with the story of how he “invented” it is anyone’s guess.

Additionally, the book pointed out that Monopoly (the game) could make people think that monopolies (the market situation) are good when in fact, monopolistic companies can raise prices willy-nilly, thus forcing customers to pay more. As someone who isn’t a fan of monopolies, I am somewhat interested in the Anti-Monopoly game after reading this, but I also sense that it might take a long time to play and that means it’s not quite my game (sorry).

Overall, this was a fun read about a well-known game. I can’t say that this makes me want to play another game of Monopoly, but I enjoyed learning about its history. Interestingly, I don’t think Parker Brothers/Hasbro learnt anything from the nine-year lawsuit – their Ms Monopoly edition completely leaves out Lizzie Magie!

Featured Image: Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash