Introduction: The birth of a new gaming era
Tomb raiders and the lost games of the ancients: what board games reveal about our ancestors
Chess: the "mad queen's game": how the chessboard came to embody centuries of world history
Backgammon: the favored game of international pace-setters and ancient emperors: how backgammon became the most glamorous game of the 1970s
The game of Life: a journey to the uniquely American day of reckoning: what the Game of Life tells us about the development of U.S. society
The forgotten message of Monopoly: how Monopoly went from anti-landlord tirade to celebration of cutthroat capitalism
From Kriegsspiel to Risk: blood-soaked and world-shaping play: how board game prepared the world for war
I Spy: how chess and Monopoly became tools of espionage and propaganda
Clue's billion-dollar crime spree: how Clue's very British murders created a world of armchair sleuths
Scrabble: words without meaning: why words are meaningless to the best Scrabble players
Plastic Fantastic, Mouse Trap, Operation, and the Willy Wonka of toys: how Mouse Trap and Operation took board games into the plastic age
Sex in a box: what board games from Twister to Monogamy tell us about sexual attitudes
Mind games: exploring brains with board games: what board games reveal about our minds
Rise of the machines: games that train synthetic brains: how board games have powered the development of artificial intelligence
Trivial Pursuit: adults at play: how Trivial Pursuit broke games out of the toy box
Pandemics and terror: dissecting geopolitics on cardboard: what board games teach us about disease, geopolitics, and the War on Terror
Made in Germany: Catan and the creation of modern board games: how Germany revitalized board gaming for the twenty-first century.