By The Sword, Richard Cohen
By The Sword, Richard Cohen
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
Club: $14.99

By The Sword
A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions

Author: Richard Cohen

Narrator: Richard Cohen

Unabridged: 19 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/11/2020


Synopsis

Napoleon fenced. So did Shakespeare, Karl Marx, Grace Kelly, and President Truman, who as a schoolboy would practice fencing with Bess—his future wife—when the two of them returned home from school. Lincoln was a canny dueler. Ignatius Loyola challenged a man to a duel for denying Christ's divinity (and won). Less successful, but no less enthusiastic, was Mussolini, who would tell his wife he was "off to get spaghetti," their code to avoid alarming the children.

By the Sword is an epic history of sword fighting—a science, an art, and, for many, a religion that began at the dawn of civilization in ancient Egypt and has been an obsession for mankind ever since. With wit and insight, Richard Cohen gives us an engrossing history of the world via the sword.

About Richard Cohen

Richard Cohen is a five-time UK national saber champion, author, and founder of Richard Cohen Books. A former director of the Cheltenham Literature Festival, he is the author of By the Sword, an award-winning history of swordplay, and Chasing the Sun, a wide-ranging narrative account of the star that gives us life. He has written for the New York Times and most leading London newspapers. Richard lives in New York City.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ben

This is a book that could finally have unseated Egerton Castle's appallingly Victorian "Schools and Masters of Fence" as the definitive book on the history of swordsmanship. Instead, the author often parrots the same misconceptions or invents entirely new ones. It is an entertaining and engaging boo......more

Goodreads review by Arun

Way before the entire aspect of time was even concieved, mankind began its tryst with weapons. The simple yet effective cudgels of the early humanoids would have been the precursors of great waves of destruction in the ages to come. As humans developed, so did their weapons from cudgels to spears un......more

Goodreads review by Mike

This is certainly an entertaining read, loaded with anecdotes and random facts, and giving some insight into the world of competitive fencing. Unfortunately it is not, by any means, a history of dueling or swordplay, as the the publisher’s description, cover, and subtitle all suggest (“a history of......more

След прочитането на книгата отново прегледах корицата, анотацията и вътрешните корици и никъде не намерих да пледира за някаква изчерпателност по въпроса, та ми е доста интересно защо в половината ревюта тук се мрънка, че няма такава. Като оставим това на страна, книгата предлага огромен обем основна......more