Suppose you were trying to replace war. Would you be interested in “games in which children may deliberately scare each other, ritually hurt each other, take foolish risks, promote fights, play ten against one, and yet in which they consistently observe their own sense of fair play” (dust jacket blurb)? The games are not learned from adults but passed on through the generations of children. This study comes from England, which looks to have a much richer game cycle than American kids usually experience. A product of ten years’ research, the book thoroughly describes the rules of play and the popularity of more than a thousand fascinating games.
