A comprehensive reference guide to edged weapons, from early stone age flint hand axes to the swords of World War I. Includes over 550 annotated color photographs with information on each weapon's date, origin, and length

• Design of the sword
• Early stone weapons
• Bronze age weapons
• Weapons of early civilizations
• Frankish, Viking, and Saxon weapons
• Medieval swords
• Late Medieval and Renaissance swords
• Rapiers
• Halberds
• Partizans and glaives
• Pikes, bills and spontoons
• Spears, guisarmes and bardiches
• Poleaxes
• Other polearms
• Hunting swords and hangers
• English Civil War swords
• Broadswords and sabres
• Cavalry lances
• Military and tournament lances
• 17th- to 19th-century cavalry swords
• 17th- to 19th-century infantry swords
• Basket-hilted swords
• 17th- and 18th-century smallswords
• North American swords
• Fencing swords
• Naval weapons
• French Napoleonic swords
• British Napoleonic swords
• Swords of the British Empire
• Swords of the Russian Empire
• Swords of the German Empire
• Swords of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
• Swords of the French Empire
• Japanese swords
• Chinese and Tibetan swords
• Chinese polearms
• African weapons
• Sri Lankan and Indian swords
• Indian polearms
• Weapons of South-east Asia
• Presentation swords
• Civilian and regimental swords
• Dress swords
• Swords of the two World Wars
• Marks and decorations