Militarizing Monopoly: Game Design for Wartime

Abstract

Abstract This article tells the story of how Monopoly, a familiar object, was militarized on the eve of World War II. It will trace how game makers working for both Allied and Axis nations redesigned Monopoly to address their own political contexts, ranging from the Great Depression to Italian Fascism to Nazi German POW camps. To understand how different nations mobilized Monopoly for wartime, we first must turn to the historical origins of its design.