‘Remember the Maine!:’ The Spanish–American War Invades the Parlor

Abstract

Long before role-playing games or the popular first-person shooter games such as Hell Let Loose and Pavlov VR, people reenacted wars and global conflicts through tabletop board games, puzzles, and card games. Prior to World War II, no American conflicts were highlighted more in board and card games than the Spanish–American War and its offshoot, the Philippine– American War. Game designers joined other cultural producers such as journalists, novelists, and artists in crafting images of the battlefield for home front audiences. Between 1898 and 1902, the toy industry produced a multitude of games and puzzles focused on famous battles, military figures, and patriotism, informing both the public’s contemporary and historical understanding of these conflicts. Through an analysis of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century games depicting the Spanish–American and Philippine–American Wars, I argue that cultural producers used a variety of images, game-types, and instructions to lionize key military leaders, facilitate vicarious participation in the conflicts, and unify citizens on the questions about the wars and their consequences.