Rating: 
Summary: Serious, still easy to read book about a sad story!
Review: albert c. veldhuis - november 11, 1998 Serious, still easy to read book about a sad story! It is because Ralph Anspach is a fine and honest story-teller with a great knowledge of human character, discernment and perseverance that he finally succeeded in getting the truth popped up. It is really unbelievable that "certain people" succeeded in cheating the world (read: their customers) for over 60 years while so often honest people have tried to tell the truth. Thanks to Ralph Anspach everyone can now read the true story of a game that is so well-known over the whole world and in so many countries even when this games DOES NOT HAVE THE RED BAR.
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Summary: Excellent revelations on the Monopoly invention cover-up
Review: Any fan of the Monopoly game or one of the many versions of the game available today will be intrigued by the origin of this fantastic game as told by Anspach through his investigations. The David vs. Goliath battle with the "Microsofts" of the Toy industry, the various owners of Parker Brothers through to Hasbro, Inc. (the current owners), shows how Monopoly is not just their game, but their mission statement and general business goal. Required reading for anyone who ever read The Monopoly Book or The Monopoly Companion.
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Summary: A thrilling detective story debunking an American myth.
Review: Anyone who loves Monopoly(R), like I do, and thinks they know the story of the game, like I did, will not be able to put this book down! The official story of the game's origin is a lie. For me, the crushing piece of evidence concerns the correct spelling of MarvEn Gardens. Check it out.
Rating:
Summary: A thrilling detective story debunking an American myth.
Review: Anyone who loves Monopoly(R), like I do, and thinks they know the story of the game, like I did, will not be able to put this book down! The official story of the game's origin is a lie. For me, the crushing piece of evidence concerns the correct spelling of MarvEn Gardens. Check it out.
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Summary: Brilliant book !
Review: Have just read Dr Anspach's book from cover to cover without a break. A fascinating expose of what must rank as one of the biggest cover- up stories of all time.Mr Blub's review is correct in that Saxton's earlier book does report that Lizzie Magie's 1904 Landlords Game was a forerunner to Monopoly. It contains nothing however about the transformation of that game through the monopoly folklore to the Darrow/Parker Bros Atlantic City copy. Nor does it contain anything about the cover- up which has served so well to monopolise Monopoly for so many years. The book is a product of Dr Anspach's detective work which was validated by the American Courts and is to be commended in stark contrast to the corporate sanctioned Orbanes book. This offering attempts to preserve some credit for Darrow while erroneously( albeit cleverly) exonerating Parker Bros from the swindle.
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Summary: A fascinating look into the history of Monopoly...
Review: I am a pretty serious Monopoly collector (over 300 games from 1935 on), and THOUGHT I knew the story fo America's favorite game (as told by the friendly folks at Parker Brothers). Then I read Ralph's book! Yow! Greed! Fraud! Subterfuge! Revisionist History! It's all in here... This book is not really about the game of Monopoly so much as Parker Brothers (and later on General Mills and Hasbro's) efforts to pull one over on the American public by creating their own false history and ownership of Monopoly, an American folk game. Only recently has the PR machine of these huge companies turned around to acknowledge the truth behind the actual creation of Monopoly revealed in this book. It's been a long time coming and I suspect Ralph has something to do with it. Not for collectors only, The Billion Dollar Monopoly (R) Swindle by Ralph Anspach is a book that anyone who has ever played (or even heard of) Monopoly should get.
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Summary: Fascinating and Original
Review: I found this book riveting and very well-written, a startling indictment of not only Parker Brothers (for claiming false invention of a 30-year old folk game and securing a fraudulent patent)but also of the American judicial system, which clearly will roll over and play dead when confronted with an army of corporate lawyers. While the earlier book by Saxon does discuss a precursor to Monopoly, it says nothing about Parker Brothers' underhanded dealings. Nor does it tell the story of how the game fell into the hands of "inventor" Charles Darrow. Another book on the subject by Orbanes (written essentially by and for Parker Bothers/Hasbro) is merely an attempt to whitewash the whole sticky mess so delightfully uncovered by Mr. Anspach. A fine and fascinating read.
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Summary: Funny, engaging, true-life detective-style history.
Review: I have read this book a few times because there is so much in it and I didn't want to forget the details. Ralph Anspach has a gift for telling a story in a way that puts you right in the middle of the action. You get to read about how an Economics Professor invented a board game and all the trials he went through to get it to market. Then you read how Parker Brothers could not stand this harmless little game and did everything they could to ban it from being sold. In self-defense, Ralph Anspach looked into the real history of the game, meeting the people and visiting the places where monopoly was invented years before it's claimed "invention" by Charles Darrow in 1935. The invention fraud pales in comparison to the cover-up that Parker Brothers carried out in order to line their pockets and monopolize the board game industry - and you, the consumer, got to pay for it in higher prices and inferior products. As the battle rages on we find Kenneth Starr in his pre-Lewinski days and some of America's biggest companies gang-up to rid the world of Anti-Monopoly once-and-for-all. How did this immigrant professor become such a threat to big business capitalism? The answers are masterfully revealed in this book that will keep you smiling and reading all through the night. Scandal, money-hungry, bloodthirsty business, a monopoly detective and more...it's all here.
Rating: 
Summary: Old news.
Review: It's interesting how Anspach presents all this information on Monopoly's origins as groundbreaking investigation when I read most of it in Sid Sackson's A Gamut of Games (published in 1969) and in Phil Orbane's The Monopoly Book (authorized by Parker Brothers, no less). Anspach must have been really out of touch not to have known all of this - which doesn't surprise me at all.
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Summary: You'll never see Monopoly the same again
Review: This is a wonderful tale of Goliath from David's point of view -- you'll be amazed at what an American business will do to defend its false patent, and it would be downright unbelievable in fiction that a judge would do what a judge actually did -- but you have to believe it because it's there in the court records. Written with self-effacing humor, this book is a fast and pleasurable read. Unfortunately there's quite a lot of misplaced punctuation (especially quotation marks) that distract from the flow -- but aside from that I find no flaws worth mentioning. Recommended to everyone who's ever played Monopoly (so you can find out what the game you've been playing is *really* about).
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