This is really a facile treatment of an extraordinarily complex subject. Sweepstakes "artists" can claim to be the first professionals. Indeed, records go back to early Myan times in the Americas, the 1st dynastic period in China, and to Ramses I in Egypt - basically as far back as written records. I really didn't get the sense that the individual writing knew the historical context as well as he should have.

Not a very incisive view but to be honest I just found this book boring. Not very insiteful and not a real pageturner.

I'm not college educated on this subject and I can't speak to the truths at large. Still, I found this book kind of lacking in the details. I really wish that the authors had taken the time to try to draw somemore substance into it before going and making conclusions.

I bought this (not from Amazon) as a reference, and only find the listing of poker hands in value of any use. Badly written, grossly out of date and a poor facsimile. One wonders how it remains on the market with so many better editions around. Anything but the "complete" Hoyle's

If you were expecting to get the hoyles book of card games rules, you will be very disappointed with this. It is very out of date, many games are not listed at all, and the rules are insufficient or incorrect even for a simple game like Hearts.

This book is published with very poor quality type, it is very difficult to read.