ARN - the Secret History of the Sword

[CADET1313@aol.com]

I found a good book that I would like to share with the rest of you. it is 
called  The Secret history of the sword by: J. Christoph Amberger. I think it 
is a wornderful book that every rapier fighter should have in his or her 
collection. but don't just take my word for it. read the comments below 
and/or goto amazon.com and read all the reviews there :o)

Pieter


The publisher, Multi-Media Books, would like to bring you the , May 5, 2000
"A remarkable job!" 
"The Japanese don't hold a monopoly on fascinating swordhistory and evolving 
combat methods. Europe has equally venerable sword traditions, ably revealed 
and chronicled in J. Christoph Amberger's *The Secret History of the Sword: 
Adventures in Ancient Martial Arts*. 

Evidently, your average Western sports fencer has as little idea of the 
"true" history of the art as does your average Japanese sports kendoka. 
Misinformation and myths abound (sound familiar?). 

In *The Secret History of the Sword*, Amberger does a remarkable job of 
laying many of these to rest, correcting prevailing misconceptions with 
numerous primary accounts of sword combat throughout European history from 
medieval trial by combat to modern German student dueling fraternities.

Amberger uncovers many of the realities of both battle and personal combat 
with blades--and he knows whereof he speaks: as a member of a German student 
dueling fraternity he participated in seven Mensuren, armed with a live 
blade. His story and the others he presents are loaded with useful 
information. (...)

The chapter "Men of Iron" covers a topic relevant to all involved in the 
pursuit and study of combat systems, ancient or modern, Eastern or 
Western--the fact of fear and its effects on even the most well-trained 
combatants. (...)

The entire volume is simply fascinating reading; my sole complaint is that 
for someone not up on the details of Western fencing terminology, it can get 
a little confusing at first. I found that Part Two cleared up a lot of those 
details for me, so you might want to consider reading it first, then going 
back to the beginning. 

All in all, I recommend this book highly to anyone with an interest in 
swords!"

-- quoted from the Reviewn by Diane Skoss END 
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