Customer Reviews

European Weapons and Armour: From the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution

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3 star:		(1)
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I got this book thinking it would be a good reference for arms and armor of the High Middle Ages and Renaissance time periods, and it most certainly delivered on that expectation. But it is so much more! The writing is fabulous, I ended up reading this book chapter by chapter (jumping around a bit). Ewart Oakeshott's passion for history and medieval armaments is very apparent in his writing, and he has created a truly beautiful book here. Bear in mind though, this book is directed at a very specific time period with a specific perspective (focusing on the development of arms and armor of the noblesse and professional military men), which means it's not for everyone...

Another great reference work by Oakeshott. Many useful illustrations of swords and armor with variations. The book is organized by the major eras and transitions in edged weapons so it is useful for tracking how styles influenced one another. Very enjoyable reading!

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.

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.

Overwhelmingly detailed for the average reader looking for some introductory information about European weaponry. Great wealth of references for the advanced researcher. I only hope that the drawings were much more detailed and the photographs in color. I wish someone (maybe the publisher) decides to make an updated edition with color photography and a much modern, reader-friendly, layout