A review by mbrandmaier
Pass Go and Collect $200: The Real Story of How Monopoly Was Invented by Tanya Lee Stone

5.0

Elizabeth Magie created a game to show the unfairness of landlords buying up all the land and raising rents to make themselves richer while the poor stayed poor having to pay a huge percentage of their wages in rent so they would have a place to live near to the available jobs. Ironically, someone else named Charles Darrow made some small tweaks to the game and passed Monopoly off as his own invention. The Parker Brothers had not wanted to buy Monopoly from either person until Charles Darrow started making money off the game by selling it to Macy's etc. Then when the Parker Brothers tried to buy from Darrow, the issue of the patent came up. The Parker Brothers paid Magie a pittance for her patent and Darrow and the Parker Brothers made a gazillion dollars or thereabouts. A story as American as apple pie. Fun critical thinking and Monopoly math questions at the end.