The History of the Monopoly Board Game Might Surprise You

We’ve all heard the story: Charles Darrow invented the Monopoly board game during the Great Depression and became a millionaire. But that’s not the full truth. Decades earlier, a Washington DC area feminist writer named Lizzie Magie created The Landlord's Game. It looked and played a lot like present day Monopoly but was intended to be a teaching tool about the benefits of Henry George's Single Tax theory and the ills monopoly land holdings.

Magie's game was not a commercial success but it developed a following amongst progressives who shared it on homemade game boards and word-of-mouth instructions. Over time, however, Magie's single tax message faded along with any recognition of her as the game's creator. In the 1930s, Charles Darrow claimed the game as his own and sold it to the Parker Brothers' game company which turned Monopoly into one of the best selling games of all time. Meanwhile, Lizzie Magie was largely written out of the game's history, and its profits.

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