Martial Musings: A Portrayal of Martial Arts in the 20th Century

(from Dust Jacket)

In every century there are unique individuals whose fate makes them standing symbols of unique merit and accomplishment. Robert W. Smith's Martial Musings stands out as the sole literary work which offers readers a unique perspective of martial arts as they evolved during the 20th century.

Smith personally escorts the reader on a martial arts tour. He starts with his own initial involvement in the arts, then launches outward, across the nation, over to Asia, and eventually home again.

Highlights:

Marital arts theory and practice; protrayals of leading Asian instructors; Westerners who were among the first to study combatives in Asia and return to their own countries to begin and develop the arts; a detailed historical show more record of the evolution of fighting arts in the West; a philosophical treatment of martial arts as exhibited in modern practice; high quality hardbound edition; over 400 pages; more than 300 illustrations

Robert W. Smith may be known as a world's leading authority on Asian martial arts, but this book shows he is much more than that. His pioneering work in the field has inspired other to follow, but perhaps none have brought such drive, stamina, and scholarly skills to such a monumental task.

Smith has practiced, taught, and written on the Asian martial arts for more than fifty years. From his late teens he trained under eminent Western boxing and wrestling coaches and later immersed himself in judo and finally the Chinese martial arts under celebrated masters. He taught many students in the latter arts in the Washington DC area where he worked as an intelligence officer for the Central Intelligence Agency.

Reviewer: A reader from Kagoshima, Japan
Mr. Smith has with his latest book written an honest and clear view of some of the martial arts he has been involved in and several of the personalities he has met over the many years of experience in them. It is a very good read, thoroughly interesting as well as written in a very pleasant writing style, and it has been hard for me to put it down once having started reading it, as I believe many if not every reviewer before me and anyone who has read the book will agree. Having said this, however, it is also important to mention that not every opinion Mr. Smith shares with us in his book can remain free of scrutiny. The no-nonsense way of describing events that have taken place in his martial arts career is to Mr. Smith's credit and clearly shows his strong character, but in some parts I couldn't help but tilt my head a little and wonder why he should have done or said a thing like that. This probably being caused by lack of life-experience on my part, for I am many years junior to Mr. Smith, I won't go into any details here, but leave it up to the readers of the future to decide whether they feel the same upon stumbling on those parts of the book. However these last sentences may have sounded, 'Martial Musings' is most certainly a must read for every martial arts enthousiast. Do you consider yourself one of them?

Reviewer Donald Vogel from Bayshore , New York
With all due respect to Mr. Smith as a lifelong devotee of the martial arts, this books sounds like it is written by a dilettante. His quotes of literary figures seem forced or out of context at many places in the narrative. The book's literary allusions read as if Mr. Smith is trying to demonstrate how erudite he is. He does the same thing with his martial arts experience. I found myself wondering if Mr. Smith spent any quality time mastering any one system outside of Judo. I expected the book to be something more than just a name dropping of who's who in the martial arts world. This is the problem with the charlatans he detracts who, upon having met someone of note or taken a few classes with them, think they can list it on their resumes. Mr. Smith rightfully gives respect where it is due, however, he does not provide much insight into the personalities of the twentieth-century's great masters, which I would have utlimately found more interesting than his opinions or complements of them.

Contents

Part I
Introduction; Early Days; In the Marines; Boxing; Judo CIA; Out to Asia; Art Broadbent; The Good Old Budokwai; Donn Draeger; Jon Bluming; John Gilbey & his Correspondents; Takahiko Ishikawa; Masahiko Kimura; Bill Paul; Dermot M. 'Pat' O'Neill; The Legendary Fairbairn; A Pause

Part II
Taiwan: A Martial Watershed; Return to America and Judo; Judo and Taiji; Back at CIA; To Teach is to Love and Learn: A Soliloquy; Xingy & Bagua: The Other Internal Arts; Rose Li: Cherchez la Femme; A Word on Weapons; My Writers: An Interlude; Zheng Manquin: The Last Decade; Ben Lo: Modest Man, True Taiji; Guo Lianyin; Southeast Asia Revisited: Laoshi's Other Top Students; Zheng Manqing: A Summing Up; The Weird and Wild; The Bogus: Hollywood; Nothing Could Be Finer: Down to Carolina
Bibliography; Credits; Glossary & Index show less