Episodes
Ruthless: Monopoly’s Secret History airs Wednesday 29 March on SBS
To many, Monopoly represents everything that is great and everything that is bad about America: unrestrained capitalism and the emotions that make our free-market society tick.
But there’s a hidden story of theft, obsession, and corporate double-dealing behind the game’s fabled origins.
The unexpected story behind the origins of Monopoly includes a radical feminist, a community of Quakers in Atlantic City, America’s best gaming firm, and an unemployed Depression-era engineer, all of whom are absent from the folksy legend propagated by Parker Brothers. And if it weren’t for the persistence of an economics professor and fervent anti-monopolist, nobody would ever know the truth about how the game came to be created.
Ruthless: Monopoly’s Secret History reveals the intriguing true origin of America’s favourite game through a combination of a detective thriller, pointed social criticism, and a celebration of pop culture.
Airdate: Wednesday 29 March 2o23 at 9.30pm on SBS.