Draeger, Donn & Robert W. Smith

New York: Kodansha International, 207 pages (1969)
ISBN: 0-87011-436-0

Recommended

As a martial arts student who has been practicing for the past 15 years, I found this book by Draeger and Smith to give a complete history of all of the well known and not so well known martial arts from around the world. The book is grouped by category of country, these countries being: China, Okinawa, Korea, Japan, India/Pakistan, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia/Indonesia, and the Philippines. Each country gives a history of the development of the art and how it spread throughout. It goes into great detail emphasizing all the roots of the different styles.

This book even goes into the evolutions of t’ai-chi boxing and methods of Chinese boxing. This book encompasses a lot of history and helps give one an understanding about the different styles of the arts and the unique cultures in which they were developed. It also goes into detail about the weapons that were used.

I would recommend this book to anyone especially martial art students who just want to expand their general knowledge on the different styles. The history is exemplary, and allows anyone to gain a greater understanding of the martial arts.

Annotated by: Rohan Chowhan (February 2003)

Martial Arts: Aikido | Arnis | Bagua | Hapkido | Iaido | Judo | Jujitsu | Karate | Kendo | Kung Fu/Wushu | Silat | Taekwondo | Taijiquan | Xingyi |

Topics: history |