About this item

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, British journalist and 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.



About the Author

Tristan Donovan

Tristan Donovan is a non-fiction author and freelance journalist/editor who planned to become an ecologist before getting distracted by journalism.

His latest book, It's All a Game: The History of Board Games from Monopoly to Settlers of Catan, will be published on 30 May 2017.

His first two books are Replay: The History of Video Games and Fizz: How Soda Shook Up the World. That playing too many video games while drinking too much soda featured heavily in his childhood is just coincidence.

His third book, Feral Cities: Adventures with Animals in the Urban Jungle, finally put that ecology degree to use.

He lives in East Sussex, in the UK, with two ham-obsessed dachshunds.



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