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

Richard Cohen

Random House Publishing Group, Dec 18, 2007 - History - 560 pages

Napoleon fenced. So did Shakespeare, Karl Marx, Grace Kelly, and President Truman, who would cross swords with his daughter, Margaret, when she came home from school. Lincoln was a canny dueler. Igantius Loyala 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.
 
With a new Preface by the author.

What people are saying

Review: By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions

User Review  - Eddy Allen - Goodreads

Napoleon fenced. So did Shakespeare, Karl Marx, Grace Kelly, and President Truman, who would cross swords with his daughter, Margaret, when she came home from school. Lincoln was a canny dueler ...

Review: By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions

User Review  - J. Patrick - Goodreads

A history of swordsmanship, written by a former Olympic fencer. Spreads itself a bit thin, but the chapters about dueling are excellent, as is the discussion of cheating among world-class fencers.

About the author

Richard Cohen was five times U.K. national saber champion and was selected for the British Olympic team in 1972, 1976, 1980, and 1984. More recently, he has been four times world veteran saber champion. A former director of the Cheltenham Literature Festival, he is the author of Chasing the Sun: The Epic Story of the Star That Gives Us Life. He lives in New York City, where he is working on a new book, The History of Historians.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Bibliographic information

• Title: By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions; Modern Library Paperbacks
• Author: Richard Cohen
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2007
• ISBN: 030743074X, 9780307430748
• Length: 560 pages
• Subjects: History / Military / Weapons; Sports & Recreation / Fencing; Sports & Recreation / Olympics