---
product_id: 14493160
title: "Swords and Swordsmen Hardcover – March 4, 2011"
brand: "mike loades"
price: "€ 94.52"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 9
url: https://www.desertcart.nl/products/14493160-swords-and-swordsmen-hardcover-march-4-2011
store_origin: NL
region: Netherlands
---

# Swords and Swordsmen Hardcover – March 4, 2011

**Brand:** mike loades
**Price:** € 94.52
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

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- **What is this?** Swords and Swordsmen Hardcover – March 4, 2011 by mike loades
- **How much does it cost?** € 94.52 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.nl](https://www.desertcart.nl/products/14493160-swords-and-swordsmen-hardcover-march-4-2011)

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## Description

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    The Hardcover review and Kindle review for all Kindle's and Kindle Fire
  

*by C***S on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 21, 2011*

Hardback Review: Mike Loades, for those that don't know him, is a fairly well known ancient weapons expert. He's been on the BBC, Nat Geo, and various History and Smithsonian channel shows.  His energy is infectious. His love of the history and subject matter is obvious. He's literally a joy to watch in these shows. If you can, hunt down his 5 part series Sword, Bow, Lance, etc.  So it was with some trepidation that I approached this book. I was worried that maybe his scholarship would be off.  I was incredibly worried that the "warm, folksy, enthusiastic, love of the subject" wouldn't come through and what he would present would be dry and painful to read.  I've found this often happens to television experts when they write.  Fortunately I couldn't have been more wrong.  I'll start with the book. It's beautiful.  Thick pages.  A joy to read. Now Mike's writing style.  It's fantastic. It's literally like he's standing next to you talking to you.  It's rare to read someone who's writing style so resembles his speaking style.  As Mike's speaking style is what drew me to him and his combination of knowledge and speaking style is what keeps me searching for his projects, I absolutely could not be happier.  In fact, despite the deep respect I have for him, his television talking style is so friendly that I just can't not call him "Mike" instead of "Mr. Loades."  Occasionally, and because there is literally no first person source material on some of this, he has to work his way through mechanics and his explanation starts to resemble a travel log instead of a piece of research history.  If this is shocking to you, please don't be surprised.  This is often the case with books on this subject where first person source material has to be filled in with a knowledge of biomechanics.  Finally his scholarship. I have several friends who are experts in the field who have disputed some of his conclusions.  This, to me, actually strengthens the arguments on the quality of his scholarship.  The only history texts, or anthropology texts, or ancient weapons texts, that no one bothers to disagree with are those that are so poorly written and researched that experts in the field didn't even feel like they were worth the energy of disagreeing with them or presenting a counter argument. The better written and researched a text is on the subject, the more experts you will get who disagree with the conclusions.  So as such, for presentation, writing style, and scholarship I give this book 5 stars. My only wish is that he had done a few more ancient weapons (he starts with King Tut and goes right through to George Washington) and had not diverted from Western to Eastern swords as my personal feeling is that it's very much three different books worth of writing. Ancient and Medieval, Eastern, and what I'll call Napoleonic. That having been said he lays out very cleary, and in that same brilliant conversational writing style, his reasons for doing so.  I can't argue with his logic or his reasons.  It's more he did such a wonderful job that I wish he would have instead done some other swords from the era that I adore studying instead of the swords from time periods that I wasn't quite as interested in.  Thus it's not really a complaint as a fond wish.  Excellent job Mr. Loades!  I bought this on Kindle as well. Kindle review is below or separate if I can convince Amazon to let me do that.Kindle Review: Okay. I also bought this on Kindle.  I have a Kindle 2 and a Kindle DX. I have access to a Kindle 3 to put it on, but haven't tried.  Yes. I'm a Kindle geek. Mr. Loades asked that all who bought it on Kindle give it a review as well to make sure there were no obvious problems with it.  So for Kindle I'm going to give it 4.5 stars.  It would be 5 stars based on how well edited the transition of the text was to the Kindle format.  I literally noticed no differences in format.  Occasionally the first transition to Kindle involves odd, unintended, format changes and weird character transpositions that the author and Amazon have to be notified about.  This is not the case here. I don't know if it's sheer luck, a commendable attention to detail in the transfer process, or an excellent editor, but the transfer is nearly perfect.  On the DX, the pictures are excellent. I've tried it on both the first generation DX and the second generation DX (I remind you. Serious Kindle geek.) and while there is some slight pixelation when the pictures are zoomed, there isn't much.  Additionally the black and white pictures come out quite well on the DX. They do lose something on the Kindle 2, however.  The primary reason I would give it 4.5 stars on Kindle is because, having both Kindle and Hardback versions, the Hardback version is so well put together.  Because the book is in many ways a work of art you lose some things, like the steel pattern (bit of a spoiler) that Mike talks about that is on the cover under the dust jacket that is obviously not there in the Kindle edition.  That having been said, I work in an environment where I would destroy the book if I carried it around, but at the same time my job has a lot of down time where I get to read (Thus do we explain my cornucopia of Kindles.), so I am ecstatic to have it on Kindle.  If you have the Kindle DX, you definitely won't be disappointed buying it in that format, especially if you have the second generation DX where the next generation E ink technology is used.  If you have the Kindle 3, I suspect, that with the next generation E-ink technology, you won't be disappointed either, even in the smaller screen format. If you have the Kindle 2 you might be disappointed a bit, but you're still getting a fantastic book.  In other words I highly recommend buying it on Kindle.  I have no opinions and having tried the Kindle on computer or Ipad or Google apps.  I suspect that with the more advanced imaging capability those platforms have that the slight pixelation problem of the pictures will disappear.  I truly don't know, however.  I hope that helps.Addendum to the Kindle Review: If using the Kindle App for Ipad, then the pictures are in color. I haven't seen it on the Ipad myself so I'm taking it from a second hand source, but a very very reliable source.Addendum to the addendum: I promised Mike and myself that as I continuously upgraded Kindle designs I would upgrade the review. That was, of course, before Amazon came out with 5 kinds! I'm still trying as I acquire them, though. I just ran through it on the Kindle Fire. All pages and pictures are in color. The book comes out in full color. The color pictures are nice although they do tend to pixilate if you zoom in on them as they are only expansions of the original size photos, not larger picture files.  All in all I give it another half star for the color, but it would be better if the pictures sharpened as they expanded. This is of course not the nature of the Kindle design set up, so I can't really gripe at Mike for that.  I give a total of 5 stars for the book in hardback, 4.5 stars on Kindle(e-ink reader devices), and 4.75 stars in Kindle Fire (it's my review and I can give it a quarter star if I want to) and by extension any LCD or computer device.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    good
  

*by R***T on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 7, 2022*

Good

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Erudite and Entertaining.- Well worth the cost...
  

*by D***K on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 27, 2012*

I can't add a lot more to what other reviewers have already written about this book - except to say I have ALWAYS found Mike Loades' work erudite, insightful and entertaining, and I dearly hope he will write and film more and leave us a larger legacy to be thankful for.  In an age of electronic entertainment and massively reduced physical activity his continuing active experimental archaeology and scholarship with reenactment contribute so very much to our understanding of the past.Like Oakeshott, Hugh Soar, and so many wonderful writers I will acquire anything I can produced by the man.I just wish more of what he has done in the past was available. Some of these men spend a lifetime exploring every aspect of their specialities and suddenly expire before they finish their works, although sometimes someone else is able to finish some of it for them.I've personally been involved in various reenactment groups for more than 3 decades, and being very obsessive/compulsive about also learning about how so much of past daily life, technology, warfare and artisanry was accomplished we have some 8,000 non-fiction books from around fifty countries in our library and having been involved in archery (Society of Archer-Antiquaries for the last good while, once the NAA and NFAA) and a university-trained Industrial Arts Ed. craftsman who has made thousands of things professionally and privately in many skilled trades and crafts since the 1960s I know quality when I see it, and I know what it means and contributes to our lives and how much it can engage our intellect.  In his way Mike is a Master of many disciplines with a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of the past which he brings to life again proving the truths and fallacies of past military technologies.(I'm also a member of the MWTCA.org - a tool collectors/users/scholars organization, whose sister organisation is the Early American Industries Associaton or EAIA.org. The craftmen writers of the past few centuries taught me so much that I can thankfully give them credit for making me a far better craftsman. I can also recommend ABANA - the Artists/Blacksmiths' Organization of North America.)Mike Loades is an international treasure - a rare individual who we need to hear more from.I sincerely hope he contributes much more in the time we both have left because I want to enjoy it.I don't want to learn one day he has expired having published only two of five planned scholarly tomes like one terrific archaeologist in Holland I admire.  I want him to be a Ewart Oakeshott and now that he has begun writing never stop."Please, Sir, I want some more."  - Actually ALL I CAN GET - would a shelffull be possible?.A Grateful reader.Da Chipmunk's old husband.

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*Product available on Desertcart Netherlands*
*Store origin: NL*
*Last updated: 2026-01-25*