'The Monopolists' by Mary Pilon uncovers the hidden true story of the world's most famous board game, Monopoly. This captivating social history reveals how the game, contrary to popular belief, was not invented by a luckless Pennsylvanian who sold his idea to Parker Brothers, but rather has its roots in an earlier game designed by a progressive woman named Lizzie Magie. Her Landlord's Game conveyed a message diametrically opposed to Monopoly's capitalism-glorifying mechanics. Decades later, Ralph Anspach, a determined academic, would stumble upon this tale and its connection to Abraham Lincoln, the Quakers, and an innovative feminist's struggle, while fighting legal battles over his Anti-Monopoly game. Pilon narrates the saga that spans more than a century, unveiling the corporate venality embedded within American history—a saga as engaging as any detective novel, filled with the true stories of those who won and lost in the real Monopoly game.