- Hardcover: 281 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1st ed. edition (Dec 1952)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0198274017
- ISBN-13: 978-0198274018
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 953,069 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Synopsis
Providing as complete a record as possible of the other board-games that have existed in different parts of the world, this book shows how they were played, what is known of their history and development, and their ultimate origin.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It might be over fifty years old, but this is still one of the best books ever written about the history of the world's different traditional board games. There are approximately a couple of hundred games in this book, from race games like backgammon to war games like draughts. Only chess is missing, as Murray deals with this in his earlier volume "A History of Chess." Just a few of the games in this book have kept me amused since I bought it over a year ago, and I've hardly scratched the surface.
Murray is also regarded as an authority on the subject of board games, too, so the book is very useful for anyone wanting to put together material like web sites, or booklets of rules for events and gatherings. If you like board games, then this book has to be worth fifteen pounds of anybody's money.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Murray does it again
18 Feb 2011
Format:Hardcover
This is not so much a history as a very complete catalogue and description of the board games of the world, classified under the five main headings of alinement, war, hunt, race and mancala games. Every variety is listed according to its geographical distribution, its rules and nomenclature are described, and a full bibliography is given. This book replaced as a standard work of reference the older writings of Hyde and Culin. This work is known for Murray's discovery of the gaming boards of the ancient Near East, and Murray's reconstruction of the games played on them, based on the author's wide learning and experience. The section on the involved problem of board games in the classical world owes much to Austin's careful work, but Murray throws further light on some questions, notably on Pollux's comment on the "five-lined game."
The ethnological interest of board games lies first in the evidence they afford for borrowing between peoples, and second in the part they play in the life of the community. On the first question,Murray's detailed work has made many points more certain. The spread of mancala in its different forms, for example, is accurately traced; and new evidence makes very doubtful Tylor's famous conjecture that the Mexican patolli derives from the Indian pachisi.
On the subject of the origins and purpose of games, Murray concludes that most games began simply as pastimes; but he gives clues through his references on pp. 159 and 235 to the much more interesting cases of board games played with more "serious" intention, for divination, to aid the recovery of the sick or to keep the spirits amused at wakes.
With the aid of Murray's work, topics such as these can now be pursued with much greater ease and certainty, and the author is to be complimented on his success in producing, with much care and industry, this very complete and orderly work, which forms a fine supplement to his earlier book on the History of Chess.
The ethnological interest of board games lies first in the evidence they afford for borrowing between peoples, and second in the part they play in the life of the community. On the first question,Murray's detailed work has made many points more certain. The spread of mancala in its different forms, for example, is accurately traced; and new evidence makes very doubtful Tylor's famous conjecture that the Mexican patolli derives from the Indian pachisi.
On the subject of the origins and purpose of games, Murray concludes that most games began simply as pastimes; but he gives clues through his references on pp. 159 and 235 to the much more interesting cases of board games played with more "serious" intention, for divination, to aid the recovery of the sick or to keep the spirits amused at wakes.
With the aid of Murray's work, topics such as these can now be pursued with much greater ease and certainty, and the author is to be complimented on his success in producing, with much care and industry, this very complete and orderly work, which forms a fine supplement to his earlier book on the History of Chess.
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