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Fighting Arts, The: Their Evolution from Secret Societies to Modern Times
Boston, Mass.: YMAA Publication Center, 118 pages (2002)
ISBN: 1886969213
4354 Washington Street
Recommended
This book is provides background on many different areas involved in martial arts. It does not just focus on specific systems, but instead it revolves around culture and many different aspects that affected the fighting styles and systems of the time. Examples included the Spartans and the samurai. The book continues to focus on traditional martial arts in relation to sport and also military. About halfway through the book it changes to focusing on modern times and the transitions involved through history to where systems are right now. One of the interesting sections was the terrorism section, which involves terrorism during pre-September 11th to after the event.
This book is a useful source when looking at the history of martial arts in general. I would not recommend this as a source if you are looking for a specific system. Aside from that it is a great book to use for looking at the impact that the past has of present day martial arts. Rosenbaum uses many different sources to back up his information and he tries to use many examples to make sure he gets his point across to the reader. This is shown by the list of sources he used in his bibliography at the end of the book. The notes page at the end of the book enable the reader to look up something that he/she does not recognize while reading. I found it to be an easy read.
This book can be used to write a report on both the history of martial arts, as well as, the present day impact of martial arts. I would advise the reader to make sure they read the whole book. It is a short 101 pages and can be very beneficial.
Annotated by: Jonathan Chirumbolo (March 2008)
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Topics: biography | competition/sparring | history | philosophy | training/exercise science | weapons |