The Martial Arts: Origins, Philosophy, Practice Book

I regret spending money on this book. What was advertised as a kind of encyclopedic introduction to the world's martial arts is, in fact, a collection of antiquated myths about martial arts, many of which can be proven with the slightest amount of common sense, most of which ignore actual history and archaeology. Everything from the Death Touch that kills months later, to okinawan fighters kicking soldiers off horses, to shaolin monks inventing all chinese martial arts (which is soon contradicted by a story of a shaolin monk travelling to learn other martial arts) is presented here as some kind of mystery shrouded fact. This is not history, this is the marketing material used in flyers for dodgy martial arts schools.

To be fair there is some verifiable history here, all of it regarding recent developments and personalities involved in martial arts, but anything that might be true or sounds plausible is cast into doubt by the extensive collection of myths.

Do not buy or read this book if you want to know facts about the various martial arts practiced around the world. This is only worth collecting if you want a handbook of martial arts fiction.