By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai (2012

By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions, 10th anniversary edition


With a new Preface by the author

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 ChristΓÇÖs divinity (and won). Less successful, but no less enthusiastic, was Mussolini, who would tell his wife he was ΓÇ£off to get spaghetti,ΓÇ¥ their code to avoid alarming the children. By the Sword is an epic history of sword fightingΓÇöa 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.


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