Professor Mary Flanagan's New Book

Mary Flanagan's new book Playing Oppression: The Legacy of Conquest and Empire in Colonialist Board Games (2023) with Mikael Jakobsson has been released from MIT Press! "A striking analysis of popular board games' roots in imperialist reasoning—and why the future of play depends on reckoning with it. Board games conjure up images of innocuously enriching entertainment: family game nights, childhood pastimes, cooperative board games centered around resource management and strategic play. Yet in Playing Oppression, Mary Flanagan and Mikael Jakobsson apply the incisive frameworks of postcolonial theory to a broad historical survey of board games to show how these seemingly benign entertainments reinforce the logic of imperialism. An essential addition to any player's bookshelf, Playing Oppression deftly analyzes this insidious violence and proposes a path forward with board games that challenge colonialist thinking and embrace a much broader cultural imagination." 

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Article from MIT News

Games with frontiers. MIT scholar Mikael Jakobsson's new book examines the not-so-subtle worldview contained in many prominent board games.
Peter Dizikes | MIT News Office. Publication Date: April 5, 2023

MIT Professor Mikael Jakobsson is the co-author of a new book, "Playing Oppression: The Legacy of Conquest and Empire in Colonialist Board Games," published by the MIT Press. The book, written with co-author Mary Flanagan, a professor at Dartmouth College, delves into the history of board games and analyzes the assumptions baked into many of them

Read the full article at MIT News.