By the Sword cover art

By the Sword

A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions

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About this listen

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.

©2002, 2008 Narrative Tension, Inc. (P)2020 Tantor Combat Sports & Self-Defense Martial Arts Military Olympics & Paralympics Sports History Weapons & Warfare World Sports War Fencing Sport
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Not meaning to sound unkind: the story was fantastic but I couldn't understand a word the narrator said, really I think this book deserved a professional reader to match the excellent writing. I'll need to find a paperback copy to finish it.

Great writing let down by narrator

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An excellent book, well researched and presented. But the reader's accent is so heavy and the quality of recording so poor that it's almost impossible to understand.

Performance ruins a great book

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