Rating: 
Summary: Varlet, eh ... ;)
Review: "By the Sword" is indeed colorful, and speaks with authority on those subjects with which the author is familiar, especially the recent history of his sport. It is worth noting that his fellow New Yorker, Maestro Ramon Martinez, has made a special study of Carranza's fencing system and has teaches it at his salle d'armes, as well as holding seminars throughout the world.In the interests of building bridges, I would suggest that Mr. Cohen and others who are unfamiliar with the burgeoning "historical fencing" movement should simply run an Internet search for that term, or for "historical swordsmanship." A similar search here at Amazon.com will unearth gems such as Professor Sydney Anglo's "Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe," which is the definitive work on this subject, as well as Christian Tobler's "Secrets of German Medieval Swordsmanship" and J. Christoph Amberger's "Secret History of the Sword," among other worthy titles. Even the earliest forms of fencing were quite obviously sophisticated fighting styles. Over the past two decades, many of the antique fencing manuals alluded to in Mr. Cohen's book have been translated and analysed, and the systems they present have been revived as practical methods of swordplay. In the process, many historical fencing myths originating during the Victorian period have been thoroughly debunked. I hope that any future editions of "By the Sword" will take full advantage of this wealth of recent scholarship, which is only a keyboard click away. Tony Wolf
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent work!
Review: *By the Sword* weaves a tapestry of fencing lore so broad in scope and rich in detail you have to make sure to occasionally take a step back to take it in in its entirety. (It is all too easy to bump your nose into the fabric if you allow factional myopia to force you in too closely...) As with many projects of this magnitude, there are bound to be mistakes. So what? They do not at all detract from the sweeping perspective, richness of detail, and the pure reading pleasure. Richard Cohen is a competent writer and top-notch fencer who offers a critical and on many occasions personal view of European swordplay traditions. I highly recommend this book to anyone with the critical mental faculties to recognize an important contribution to fencing's cultural history and an overall interest in the European way of the sword.
Rating:
Summary: A good effort, but ...
Review: ... unfortunately, the author has not taken advantage of the latest research on historical fencing. These facts are easily available and a serious writer, even if not purporting to an in-depth historical analysis, should at least check his sources against current scholarship.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, informative: an awesome book
Review: ...I bought this book on impulse because I just kinda dig swords, samurai, duels, all that kind of thing. I can tell you that I LOVED this book, because it covers so many aspects of the blade. Dueling, wounds, Olympic competition, samurai, German "mensur" fighting etc etc. I don't give a HOOT if armor was 60pounds... Only a few books have made me want to write to the author to compliment them on their creation--Ursala K. LeGuin for "The Tombs of Atuan" and Bryce Courtenay for "The Power of One" for example, but I'm going to do it for this book. The author did well for the layman, very well, and I keep picking it up again to look things over. Plus, I have signed up for fencing lessons. Now how is that for a compliment to a book? I loved it, I think most everyone will too. PS--dear Richard--I swear, the 1800's-era photo of the beheaded guy (saber duel): it looks faked. Any word on that? Something about how on foot is not visible, the body position. Just curious. Great book!
Rating:
Summary: A Colorful Social History
Review: A comprehensive and colorful social history of swordplay and the sport of fencing. The author has an intimite knowledge of the ins and outs of the comtemporary fencing scene, as well as providing the context in which the sport has evolved. Highly recommended for the general and particular reader.
Rating: 
Summary: Dreary, Sloppy
Review: As a fencer and as a reader of serious non-fiction I must say this clunky, dense and aimless book is a disappointment.
Cohen's history is as deep as cocktail party anecdote and his writing is often patronizing and windy. A must-miss.
Rating: 
Summary: A Book about Fencing as a Sport
Review: Cohen dazzles the reader with a lifetime of note taking and extensive research, giving details, as well as personal insights that bring a lot of fencing lore that is either fragmented or dispersed in handbooks, treatises, and annals into a single volume. Cohen summarizes for the reader's benefit what would take - as it did him - decades for us to synthesize. And having withstood the test of competitive fencing on the British Sabre team in the 1980's and 90's, Cohen has the experience and the contacts which makes his book a must-have for the experienced and casual fencer's library.
Knowing what to say and about whom to say it in the world of fencing is an audacious editorial task in which Cohen succeeds. Go to any international fencing tournament and each individual deserves more than a mere 15-minutes of fame. With thousands of historical fencers to pick from, Cohen does an excellent job of recounting the lives of many important or simply interesting fencers. Included are playwrights, novelists, philosophers, emperors, movie stars, fencing champions, Nazis, Communists, spies, and a host of others. The chapters on Helene Mayer ("The Woman who Saluted Hitler"), Pawlowski ("Faustian Pacts"), and Emil Beck ("The Demon Barber") make for a fascinating read.
For the general reader with limited fencing experience, the book does prove to be compelling, if one can get through the sheer length of Cohen's work (500 pages of text). For those with more specialized interest, however, By the Sword is more authoritative in the modern time period than it is in discussions of earlier fencing history, which is more properly swordsmanship than it is fencing. Early chapters are full of material, all of it properly quoted and footnoted, but the glint in Cohen's writing forte is in personal anecdote than it is in summarizing the historical end of sword fighting.
Of apparent weakness is the chapter on Japanese swordsmanship, in which Cohen, to quote an earlier review, is "seduced by popular views of Zen." While acknowledging the importance of the sword to Japanese culture, the evolution of Japanese society owes more to its cultural morality, than it does to the cult of the sword. Similarly, there is almost nothing said about other Asian traditions, especially that of China. Also of recent validity is the criticism that nothing is said of the high caliber of analysis in the historical fencing tradition which seeks to understand medieval and renaissance swordsmanship as sophisticated fencing traditions and not simply long sword edge bashing.
With that said, I should reiterate that By the Sword should be in every fencer's collection. Especially to those interested in sport fencing of the Western (European) tradition.
Nick Jamilla, author of "Shimmering Sword: Samurai, Western, and Star Wars Sword Fighting"
Rating:
Summary: Very good book about European dueling and fencing.
Review: Cohen's book _By_The_Sword_ is an excellent book for the beginner-to-intermediate history student who wants to learn about the history of swords and swordsmanship, especially with regards to European dueling traditions from the 1500's on and modern-day fencing. While there are sections that deal with European swordsmanship of the 1400's and prior, Roman swordsmanship and Japanese swords and samurai traditions, Cohen's background is primarily in Olympic fencing (also known as sport fencing) and therefore it is not surprising that the majority of the book deals with fencing and its precursor, dueling.
I read this book as someone who has intermittently participated in fencing since 1995. I have not really done much fencing in tournaments, in part because of my frustration with the limitations of electric fencing and electric fencing equipment. If for no other reason, I would recommend Cohen's book because of the history of why electric fencing became popular (it had a lot to do with too much cheating & favoritism).
Fencing and dueling are very intense and individual activities that often attract practitioners who are, well, very intense and individualistic. The sections on famous dueling and fencing personalities were quite fascinating. This includes movie stars as many fencers first walk into a salle after watching _Zorro_, _The_Prisoner_of_Zenda_, _The_Three_Musketeers_ or other films in which rapier dueling plays a key part.
I specifically mentioned rapier dueling for a reason: Cohen does not spend very much time on broadsword, longsword, mixed weapon (two-handed sword vs. one-handed sword, sword vs. dagger, etc.), or battlefield traditions. Anyone looking for information about Scottish Highland regimental sword, German longsword, Fiore de Libere's work, Spanish rapier, etc. will need to look elsewhere as those are either only briefly mentioned or not mentioned at all.
There is a section on Hungarian saber but that is primarily because olympic saber fencing is descended from Hungarian saber and, like olympic foil and epee fencing, olympic saber fencing is based on two people in a duel and not two lines of cavalry charging each other on the battlefield.
While Cohen does not spend a lot of time on non-dueling practices, his sections on dueling are quite interesting. The practice of settling a legal case by having two champions fight it out on the theory that God would directly influence the bout to show which side was right legally made for fascinating reading. So did the sections about how parts of Europe went mad for dueling, with the slightest provocation being reason to call someone out for a duel. At one time the teaching of fencing was banned because it was only for ruffians and thugs and it is a very long and interesting road from those humble beginnings to the Olympic and (generally) non-lethal pastime that it is today.
Each martial art or sport has its own personality and each of these peronalities has a good side and a bad side. The good side of fencing is how much each competitor must push themselves on the strip and how in pushing themselves, they come to truly understand the capabilities (and limitations) of their own minds and bodies. Cohen does an excellent job in portraying this and in letting the reader experience the incredible thrill and enjoyment of a good fencing bout.
Unfortunately, the bad side of the fencing personality is over-competitiveness both on and off the strip. There will always be a significant minority of both coaches and players who will try to win through intimidation, bending the rules, using loopholes and sometimes flat-out cheating and lying. Unless the majority of coaches, referees and the competitors make it VERY clear that the saying "it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game" is a REAL standard that WILL be enforced and offenders WILL have points taken away or even be thrown out of tournaments and clubs, competition becomes a race to the bottom because anyone or any team that does play fairly and by the rules will be at a disadvantage. Cohen is painfully honest about how much of a problem fencing currently has with cheating and extremely poor sportsmanship, especially at national and international levels. He is also honest about some of the problems overcompetitiveness and technology have brought, such as flick hits.
Cohen also discusses the current identity crisis in fencing. IS fencing a martial art, based on a tradition of honor, the importance of a man's reputation and lethal dueling? OR, is it merely a sport that grew out of dueling but has since become a contest to see who can beat the scoring machine and who can get the first touch? Cohen clearly still thinks of it as a martial art, as do many others including many beginning fencers who first walk into a salle because they have been entranced by the swordwork of Ralph Faulkner, Basil Rathbone, Douglas Fairbanks or even Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker going at it with light sabers. But I am not so sure. Neither are a lot of other people I have met in western martial arts classes who, like myself, have fenced and love what fencing can be -- a battle of wits and mettle with another person and a lot of fascinating history behind the actual art itself -- but hate what it has become -- a sport of prima donnas and showoffs -- and therefore have left it to study other European fighting traditions.
Fencing salles are not found on every street corner and in every strip mall and are definitely not as prevalent as karate, tae kwon do, kung fu and other Asian martial arts schools. This is something that bothers a lot of fencers and there is a lot of discussion in fencing groups about how to make fencing more popular and how to attract more people to it. Often heard is the comment "if only the U.S. would win an Olympic Gold Medal in fencing . . . ", usually followed by hopes that fencing would get more funding, more attention, more students, more press, etc. etc. That dream came true with this last Olympics with the U.S. winning an Olympic Gold in women's saber. It will be very interesting for the next few years to see if fencing will take off like everyone hoped it would, or if it will continue to decline into something seen in Hollywood films and an expensive niche sport that is resembling the film and historic images less and less. Whichever way it goes, _By_The_Sword_ will be an excellent resource for the student of history and human nature who wants to understand why it turned out that way.
Rating:
Summary: Life Behind the Mask
Review: For a beginning fencer and long time lover of history, I must say I enjoyed much of Richard Cohen's "By The Sword". Cohen's presentation of the history of fencing helped to make much of what I do on the piste come to life and have a deeper meaning. This is not a "how to" book, but rather a varied history of the sword, swordsmanship and the sport of fencing. Mr. Cohen's writing style is easy to follow and understand. I found the footnotes to be helpful and enlightening as I moved through the various stories and anecdotes. There were parts of the book that I felt a bit intimidated by, especially some of the Polish and Hungarian names. A glossary and pronunciation chart in the appendices would have been helpful. A non-fencer will need to check out a fencing website for help with some of the more technical terminology. Otherwise I found "By the Sword" to be refreshing and a joy to read.
Rating:
Summary: A fantastic read!
Review: For anyone who is fascinated by swords and their history, this is a great book. For anyone who loves fencing, this is a great book. For fans of the history of arms, civilian and military, this is a great book.
Cohen's excellent and detailed book ranges fairly far and wide covering the sword's place in human history, the shift from swords as key "military" weapons to civilian weapons to sporting equiptment. He starts with the sword's place in early human history and moves to dueling and on to the modern sports of fencing and the people who have stood out with blades in their hands.
Bravo!
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