LEADER 00000cam  22000004a 4500 
001    ocm49626106 
003    OCoLC 
005    20040713000000.0 
008    020327t20022002nyua     b    001 0 eng   
010      2002021309 
019    52896481 
020    0375504176 
020    0812969669|qpaperback 
035    (OCoLC)49626106 
040    DLC|beng|cDLC|dFBP|dXY4 
042    pcc 
049    WHPP 
050 00 U860|b.C58 2002 
082 00 796.86/09|221 
100 1  Cohen, Richard,|d1947- 
245 10 By the sword :|ba history of gladiators, musketeers, 
       samurai, swashbucklers, and Olympic champions /|cRichard 
       Cohen. 
250    First edition. 
264  1 New York :|bRandom House,|c[2002] 
264  4 |c©2002 
300    xxiv, 519 pages :|billustrations ;|c25 cm 
336    text|btxt|2rdacontent 
337    unmediated|bn|2rdamedia 
338    volume|bnc|2rdacarrier 
504    Includes bibliographical references (pages [483]-503) and 
       index. 
505 0  How it all began -- Enter the master -- Wild kind of 
       justice -- France in the age of the musketeers -- Great 
       swordmakers -- Perfectthrust -- Sword is the soul -- 
       Points of honor -- Pursuit for gentlemen -- Swashbuckling 
       -- On Mount Rushmore -- Spilled blood -- Scars of glory --
       Facist sport -- Woman who saluted Hitler -- Champions -- 
       Exodux -- Burden of gold -- Honor betrayed -- Demon 
       barber. 
520    Napoleon fenced. So did Shakespeare, Karl Marx, Grace 
       Kelly, and President Truman, who would cross swords with 
       Bess after 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 alternative 
       history of the world. Sword fighting was an entertainment 
       in ancient Rome, a sacred rite in medieval Japan, and 
       throughout the ages a favorite way to settle scores. For 
       centuries, dueling was the scourge of Europe, banned by 
       popes on threat of excommunication, and by kings who then 
       couldn't keep themselves from granting pardons-in the case
       of Louis XIV, in the thousands. Evidence of this passion 
       is all around us: We shake hands to show that we are not 
       reaching for our sword. A gentleman offers a lady his 
       right arm because his sword was once attached to his left 
       hip. Men button their jackets to the right to give them 
       swifter access to their sword. In his sweeping narrative, 
       Cohen takes us from the training of gladiators to the 
       tricks of the best Renaissance masters, from the exploits 
       of musketeers to swashbuckling Hollywood by way of the 
       great moments in Olympic fencing. A young George Patton 
       competed in the 1912 Olympics. In 1936, a Jewish champion 
       fenced for Hitler. Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone were 
       ardent swordsmen. We meet their coaches and the man who 
       staged the fight scenes in Star Wars, The Lord of the 
       Rings, and James Bond's Die Another Day. Richard Cohen has
       the rare distinction of being both a compelling writer and
       a champion sabreur. He lets us see swordplay as graceful 
       and brutal, balletic and deadly, technically beautiful and
       fiercely competitive-the most romantic of martial arts. By
       the Sword is a virtuoso performance that is sure to 
       beguile history lovers, sports fans, military buffs, and 
       anyone who ever dreamed of crossing swords with Darth 
       Vader. 
650  0 Fencing|xHistory. 
856 41 |3Table of contents|uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy041/
       2002021309.html 
856 42 |3Publisher description|uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/
       description/random0413/2002021309.html 
914    MID.b12869879 
994    90|bWHP