From the murky origins of human’s earliest past times, where fortune-telling and play blur, to modern ventures into Monopoly, boardgames have shaped everything from how we conduct war to the art we create. But just what is it that makes them so addictive, so constantly inviting to playful reinterpretation and reinvention? Caroline Taggart brings her signature warmth and wit to a playful cultural history that lays the checkered past of boardgames bare.