Ewart OakeshottEuropean Weapons and Armour: From the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution

My fifty year old Bantam book on edged weapons went missing in a recent move. While I have a copy of the Sir Richard Burton book on edged weapons, it lacked a lot with regard to renaissance and reformation weapons, especially side swords. Someone in SBG Sword Forums recommended this book, and I was not disappointed.In addition to the amazing detail on sword hilt designs, there's excellent information on polearms and armor that I wasn't even looking for.

Great detail about swords and the history behind them.

With so much emphasis in Western Martial arts focused on medieval weapons and systems of defense this book had fallen off my radar. Thanks to someone elses endorsement I got it today. Oakshott does a particualrly fine job of given context and continuity to the 15-17th Century systems evolving or declining with the development of competing firearms. The scope of the new reality of the 18-19th Century goes beyond the crux of Oakshotts analysis and could have been dispensed with. Stilla relavant study today, of value to neophytes and gilded specialists alike.

An excellent book by Ewart Oakshott, I purchased this book as an adjunct to the medieval swords by Oakshott. It is highly recommended with others making a set that covers the end of the Roman Empire in the west through to the beginnings of the Napoleonic period. This volume covers schiavonas, rapiers, the later renaissance 3/4 and half armours and the beginnings of the pattern swords at the dawn of the industrial revolution.Recommended reading if your interested in swords and the history of their evolution and design

I have studied antique arms most of my life, and one of my first books was by the late Ewart Oakeshott . His knowledge and incredible style of writing makes learning the often complexities of identifying arms and armour as well as the history surrounding them making virtually every book by him profoundly dimensional, more like a great novel than a dry textbook! I bought this as a replacement as it is most required in my reference library.

Fairly worked text. Beginner level.

Ewart Oakeshott is one of the ancient weapons and armor collector-academic that I really love to read. He is passionate, informative, sometimes with a nice touch of humor, always with pertinent information and anecdotes, destroying silly myths (like the cranes lifting the knights). So, you definitively should buy this book.It will give you information about one of the most important periods of arms developments, when new tactics and weapons changed the way war was made.All weapon types used in this period (from the renaissance to the Industrial Revolution) have a chapter; including staff-weapons (can you tell the differences between Chauvre-Souris and a Partisan?) , daggers, maces and war-hammers, the development of handguns, etc. The sword, armor and helmets have much more relevance in this book, having separate chapters according to period. A very good time chart (from 1450 to 1815, with military and political events, heads of state, artists, armourers, etc) and appendixes about tournament armor and American swords of the XIX century complete this work.This book is the sequel to "The Archeology of Weapons", and it's probably the best starting point to learn styles of Hilts, regional types of armor, etc.With many photographs and good line drawings made by the author it's visually appealing (and believe me, it's much easier showing you a piece of armor than trying to explain it in written form).Some images relate to items that are mentioned many pages earlier or later and some mistakes are also mentioned (like Alexander the Great in the III rd Century BC) and would be easily avoided. The author defends himself well on why he concentrates so much in sword hilts, but he could had put some more information about the blades.A revised edition would be perfect.

The late Ewart Oakeshott was an expert on the European sword. He could write the most scholarly of works. But instead writes a book that everyone can read. The Oakeshott Museum holds his collection and is one of the best presented displays of historic swords in the world today.European Weapons and Armour is an excellent overview on the topic. A good read for both the student starting out on the study of this field and for amateur historians alike. This book serves as a broad overview and a good introduction to Oakeshott's my detailed works on the European Sword.Every school library, high school and college level, should have this book.

The definitive book on the subject.

Good coverage of armour & hand-to-hand weapons of the period. Very little wrt firearms, the emerging dominant weapon - & indeed focuses on wheellock design, which was little used in warfare. Plates & illustrations are generally poor, black & white & sketchy (it was first published in 1980, but one could be forgiven for thinking it was from 1880. Dry, academic work with focus on swords. Likely to sit mostly unread on my bookshelf. For serious, academic student but as general work it is a poor purchase.The author's excuse for not giving due coverage to firearms was that it is outside his expertise & that so many other works cover early firearms. Bibliography for brief chapter on developing power of the handgun is very limited. A prof would say the author has not read widely enough.Title of book should be European Hand Weapons & Armour etc.I doubt I would have purchased this book knowing its deficiencies. The cover picture is inviting but not representative of quality of contents.I imagine author would follow this book up with 3 volume set on variations of sword hilts of the 16th to 18th century.

"A knight and his weapons" was short and with a good mix between actual usage* and cultural background. In this book the major part is background and funny stories. Not for me. *"Why had that sword that pommel"

sehr gut

Good and fast