From knives and daggers to bayonets and axes, this title offers a guide to over 300 of the most important edged weapons from the last 5,000 years. It discusses revealing features on twenty 'iconic' swords from the short gladius of the Roman Legionary to the North American Bowie knife

• Ancient blades 3000 BCE - 1000 CE
• The first blades
• Mesopotamia and Egypt
• Bronze-and iron-age blades
• Celtic warrior
• Hoplite
• Roman gladiator
• Early armour
• Viking raider
• The Middle Ages 1000-1500
• European swords
• Tournament combat
• Medieval knight
• Medieval foot soldier
• Medieval fightbooks
• Shaolin monk
• Blade vs bow
• The Age of Swordsmanship 1500-1775
• Two-handed swords
• European infantry and cavalry swords
• Duelling
• Cossack warrior
• Landsknecht
• Pikeman
• Cutting and thrusting
• Samurai
• Twilight of the Sword 1775-1900
• European swords
• British cavalryman
• Fencing
• United States Cavalryman
• Bayonet tactics
• North American warrioe
• Ottoman warrior
• Ninja
• Kenjutsu
• Zulu warrior
• Maori warrior
• The Modern World
• German and Italian blades
• WWII British commando
• Gurkha