Family Game Night Board Games from the Gilded Age to the Roaring Twenties

During the second half of the nineteenth century, the renaissance of industrialization and the division of labor between the sexes paved the way for connoisseurs, architects, and social reformers to elevate the status of the home living room as a space for leisure and family gatherings. The makers and marketers of board games took advantage of these trends by promoting a certain kind of American dream that was exclusive to a certain category.In the book Family Games Night, Susan R. Asbury has a history of American board games from the 1880s through the 1920s, the values and styles they conveyed, and the impact of game designers and manufacturers on consumers.Drawing on historical documents, marketing materials, patents, memos, and photographs, Asprey shows how games have integrated and promoted the concepts of progress and abundance, including a clear identification of the purported beneficiaries: white middle-class families. Asprey also analyzes toy box casings and components to uncover the methods that manufacturers and designers have used to craft narratives to maintain a sense of cultural dominance in a rapidly changing society.Through images and instructions woven into the gameplay framework, Family Games Night reveals how these board games have impacted players' values and attachments, shaping their worldview.