Martial History Team

  Welcome to the June 2022 book survey, part two. I decided to break this month's survey into two posts, as I did last month. Introduction In June 2022, I (Richard) continued my reading plan. This post describes another 8 books that I read in June, all related to the 1970s Kung Fu TV series . Read on to separate the wheat from the chaff.  Spirit of Shaolin: A Kung Fu Philosophy, David Carradine, 1991/1998 I bought  Spirit of Shaolin: A Kung Fu Philosophy  in the 1990s when I was studying kung fu and watching the original series in syndication on the TNT network. This book is split into three parts. The first is an autobiography of sorts, from the Kung Fu TV show through the first Kung Fu TV pilot movie. The second presents itself as philosophy and ancient wisdom, but it is filled with the false Shaolin creation myths debunked in many solid books published in the last few years. The third part contains "lessons," and is followed by an appendix.  The appendix feat...

   Welcome to the June 2022 book survey, part one. I decided to break this month's survey into two posts, as I did last month. Introduction In June 2022, I (Richard) continued my reading plan. This post describes 8 books that I read in June. A subsequent post will address the other 8 that I surveyed last month. Read on to separate the wheat from the chaff.  British Sword Fighting 1600-1945, D. A. Kingsley, 2018 I bought British Sword Fighting 1600-1945 in December 2020. My copy is a black and white hardcover measuring 9 1/4 inches by 6 1/4 inches by 2 1/8 inches, with 740 pages. The latest edition is called Swordsmen of the British Empire 1600-1945 and was published in 2021. The version sold on Amazon appears to be a 2013 publication. This blog post influenced my original buying decision, as it tried to make sense of the many versions of this title.  This is an unusual book. It is self-published through Lulu and is mostly text. There are illustrations, but they ar...