Philip Orbanes, expert on all things Monopoliana, tells the remarkable history of the Monopoly game, from its predecessor's birth as a teaching tool for an economics class in the first decade of the twentieth century, through its introduction in 1935 and explosive growth in the postwar decades--over 200 million copies sold in sixty countries--to it being a fixture in just about every American home today. Orbanes includes personality portraits, little-known legends and lore, and the extraordinary variety of advertising used throughout the twentieth century. This is the first and only book to cover comprehensively the origin, growth, and global impact of the game that has become a cultural icon. This book is not endorsed by Hasbro Games. - Publisher.