Playing Games
Maine Antique Digest, 01-12-2014, ––
This book traces the history of games and their importance in society, from ancient versions of games still played in some form today to modern computer-based games. Playing Games is full of names, dates, stories, facts, and quotations. It takes readers through many times and lands and seems to show that there is nothing new under the sun, as the writer of Ecclesiastes observed, at least in this area of social leisure pursuits. Illustrations of people playing games, game boards and pieces, and games tables and other furnishing bring visual interest to the topic, Throughout, the author discusses how games and gambling have flip-flopped in the minds if social,
political, and religious leaders between being acceptable and being something to be discouraged, even outlawed. Many games still played today had their start in ancient times and have evolved as they traveled through many centuries, customs, and cultures. One chapter looks at the mathematics  behind games, and another discusses the decorative appeal of game boards and game pieces. The most popular games are given a more through history in their own chapters – cards, lotteries and gambling, board games, back gammon, chess. Checkers, billiards, and roulette. In one humorous quotation, a 15th-century character created by Leon Battista Alberti states
, “Any game okayed sitting down is [not] proper to really virile man. Perhaps some such games should be allowed the old, chess and similar pleasures for the gouty…”. What would that character think of our culture’s attraction to video games? A final chapter discusses the present and future games. It includes much discussion about the risks and benefits of video games with references to many statistics and studies and continuous with a discussion of the rise in popularity of commercial gambling enterprises throughout the world. This book is a worthwhile read and should appeal to collectors of games and game boards and accessories.

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