Pastimes and Players
Author : Robert Macgregor
Publisher :
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 48,19 MB
Release : 1881
Category : Games
ISBN :
Author : Robert Macgregor
Publisher :
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 48,19 MB
Release : 1881
Category : Games
ISBN :
Author :
Publisher :
Page : 1048 pages
File Size : 28,24 MB
Release : 1882
Category : Amusements
ISBN :
Author : Oliver Roeder
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 326 pages
File Size : 37,48 MB
Release : 2022-01-25
Category : History
ISBN : 1324003782
A group biography of seven enduring and beloved games, and the story of why—and how—we play them. Checkers, backgammon, chess, and Go. Poker, Scrabble, and bridge. These seven games, ancient and modern, fascinate millions of people worldwide. In Seven Games, Oliver Roeder charts their origins and historical importance, the delightful arcana of their rules, and the ways their design makes them pleasurable. Roeder introduces thrilling competitors, such as evangelical minister Marion Tinsley, who across forty years lost only three games of checkers; Shusai, the Master, the last Go champion of imperial Japan, defending tradition against “modern rationalism”; and an IBM engineer who created a backgammon program so capable at self-learning that NASA used it on the space shuttle. He delves into the history and lore of each game: backgammon boards in ancient Egypt, the Indian origins of chess, how certain shells from a particular beach in Japan make the finest white Go stones. Beyond the cultural and personal stories, Roeder explores why games, seemingly trivial pastimes, speak so deeply to the human soul. He introduces an early philosopher of games, the aptly named Bernard Suits, and visits an Oxford cosmologist who has perfected a computer that can effectively play bridge, a game as complicated as human language itself. Throughout, Roeder tells the compelling story of how humans, pursuing scientific glory and competitive advantage, have invented AI programs better than any human player, and what that means for the games—and for us. Funny, fascinating, and profound, Seven Games is a story of obsession, psychology, history, and how play makes us human.
Author : Mark Dyreson
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 305 pages
File Size : 41,2 MB
Release : 2016-04-14
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 1317572696
When the colonies that became the USA were still dominions of the British Empire they began to imagine their sporting pastimes as finer recreations than even those enjoyed in the motherland. From the war of independence and the creation of the republic to the twenty-first century, sporting pastimes have served as essential ingredients in forging nationhood in American history. This collection gathers the work of an all-star team of historians of American sport in order to explore the origins and meanings of the idea of national pastimes—of a nation symbolized by its sports. These wide-ranging essays analyze the claims of particular sports to national pastime status, from horse racing, hunting, and prize fighting in early American history to baseball, basketball, and football more than two centuries later. These essays also investigate the legal, political, economic, and culture patterns and the gender, ethnic, racial, and class dynamics of national pastimes, connecting sport to broader historical themes. American National Pastimes chronicles how and why the USA has used sport to define and debate the contours of nation. This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.
Author :
Publisher :
Page : 472 pages
File Size : 30,88 MB
Release : 1889
Category : Sports
ISBN :
Author :
Publisher :
Page : 522 pages
File Size : 36,79 MB
Release : 1881
Category : Sports
ISBN :
Author :
Publisher :
Page : 720 pages
File Size : 46,84 MB
Release : 1912
Category : Sports
ISBN :
Author : Tresham Gilbey
Publisher :
Page : 330 pages
File Size : 11,86 MB
Release : 1926
Category : Recreation
ISBN :
Author :
Publisher :
Page : 404 pages
File Size : 19,31 MB
Release : 1863
Category : Amusements
ISBN :
Author : J. Aspin
Publisher : Read Books Ltd
Page : 135 pages
File Size : 28,27 MB
Release : 2013-04-26
Category : History
ISBN : 1473380715
Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.