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Author: Karl F. Friday Publisher: Stanford University Press ISBN: 0804726965 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 282
Book Description
Tracing the evolution of state military institutions from the seventh through the twelfth centuries, this book challenges much of the received wisdom of Western scholarship on the origins and early development of warriors in Japan. This prelude to the rise of the samurai, who were to become the masters of Japan's medieval and early modern eras, was initiated when the imperial court turned for its police and military protection to hired swords--professional mercenaries largely drawn from the elites of provincial society. By the middle of the tenth century, this provincial military order had been handed a virtual monopoly of Japan's martial resources. Yet it was not until near the end of the twelfth century that these warriors took the first significant steps toward asserting their independence from imperial court control. Why did they not do so earlier? Why did they remain obedient to a court without any other military sources for nearly 300 years? Why did the court put itself in the potentially (and indeed, ultimately) precarious situation of contracting for its military needs with private warriors? These and related questions are the focus of the author's study. Most of the few Western treatments see the origins of the samurai in the incompetence and inactivity of the imperial court that forced residents in the provinces to take up arms themselves. According to this view, a warrior class was spontaneously generated just as one had been in Europe a few centuries earlier, and the Japanese court was doomed to eventually perish by the sword because of its failure to live by it. Instead, the author argues that it was largely court activism that put swords in the hands of rural elites, thatcourt military policy, from the very beginning of the imperial state era, followed a long-term pattern of increasing reliance on the martial skills of the gentry. This policy reflected the court's desire for maximum efficiency in its military institutions, and the policy's succes
Author: Karl F. Friday Publisher: Stanford University Press ISBN: 0804726965 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 282
Book Description
Tracing the evolution of state military institutions from the seventh through the twelfth centuries, this book challenges much of the received wisdom of Western scholarship on the origins and early development of warriors in Japan. This prelude to the rise of the samurai, who were to become the masters of Japan's medieval and early modern eras, was initiated when the imperial court turned for its police and military protection to hired swords--professional mercenaries largely drawn from the elites of provincial society. By the middle of the tenth century, this provincial military order had been handed a virtual monopoly of Japan's martial resources. Yet it was not until near the end of the twelfth century that these warriors took the first significant steps toward asserting their independence from imperial court control. Why did they not do so earlier? Why did they remain obedient to a court without any other military sources for nearly 300 years? Why did the court put itself in the potentially (and indeed, ultimately) precarious situation of contracting for its military needs with private warriors? These and related questions are the focus of the author's study. Most of the few Western treatments see the origins of the samurai in the incompetence and inactivity of the imperial court that forced residents in the provinces to take up arms themselves. According to this view, a warrior class was spontaneously generated just as one had been in Europe a few centuries earlier, and the Japanese court was doomed to eventually perish by the sword because of its failure to live by it. Instead, the author argues that it was largely court activism that put swords in the hands of rural elites, thatcourt military policy, from the very beginning of the imperial state era, followed a long-term pattern of increasing reliance on the martial skills of the gentry. This policy reflected the court's desire for maximum efficiency in its military institutions, and the policy's succes
Author: Alex Bledsoe Publisher: Tor Books ISBN: 1466854316 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 941
Book Description
Alex Bledsoe introduced the world to Eddie LaCrosse, the hard-boiled but soft-hearted detective known as a "sword jockey" who, for twenty-five gold pieces a day, plus expenses, will take on any case short of murder for hire. Like Philip Marlowe in shining armor or Sam Spade with a sword, Eddie goes down his mean medieval streets trying to walk the straight and narrow in a crooked, twisting fantasy world. Over the course of four novels, LaCrosse has encountered dragons, pirates, sea monsters, goddesses, ghosts, and magic, all the while keeping his cool and doing what's right. In this collection you'll receive the complete text of the first four Eddie LaCrosse novels. The Sword-Edged Blonde When a childhood friend, now a king, asks Eddie's help in clearing his queen of a murder charge, Eddie's long-buried past refuses to stay hidden. Burn Me Deadly Someone will go to any lengths, including torture and murder, to locate the last remaining dragon eggs. But dragons aren't real, are they? Dark Jenny A poisoned apple sets off political turmoil that threatens to destroy an entire Camelot-like kingdom, and take Eddie with it. Wake of the Bloody Angel Eddie searches for the vanished pirate Black Edward Tew and his legendary treasure, but even the help of a tough former pirate queen may not be enough to save him from what he finds. Swords Are My Business also includes a sample of the fifth Eddie LaCrosse novel, He Drank, and Saw the Spider. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Author: Ashley McLeo Publisher: Ashley McKee ISBN: 1947245805 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 1164
Book Description
A complete portal fantasy series containing four books: Hawk Witch Assassin Witch Traitor Witch Illuminator Witch From Hawk Witch: A mysterious fae-shifter. A battle royale. A discovery of a lifetime. After I'm sucked into Faerie, I have a chance to start over, to find love, and discover my lost bloodline. Crazily enough, for the first time in my life, my magic is cooperating too. Yet, there's one hitch. Because there's always a hitch, isn't there? To get what I want most, I have to fight gladiator style—and I must win. The competition is more powerful than me, cunning, and a thousand times more charming. Still, when I really want something, I don't give up. And I won't start now. If you like the atmosphere of Holly Black's The Cruel Prince and the action of Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse, you'll love Ashley McLeo's dark and twisted Bonegates Series. Discover a unique take on Faerie and magic today.
Author: Roland Green Publisher: Wizards of the Coast ISBN: 0786963379 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 300
Book Description
The greatest order of chivalry in the history of Krynn. After a knight has achieved the Order of the Crown, he must then begin his training in the virtues of courage and heroism in order to achieve the Order of the Sword. This is the second tale of Sir Pirvan the Wayward, whose reluctant and inauspicious beginnings bore few clues to his potential as a Knight of the Sword or as a Knight of the Crown, nor as a mentor for another similarly dubious prospect for Krynn's greatest order of chivalry. Roland J. Green is the author of the Starcruiser Shenandoah and Wandor series and numerous Conan novels, and is coauthor (with Jerr Pournelle) of the Jannisaries series. The Warriors series details the exploits of the heroes and villains of the War of the Lance.
Author: Karl F. Friday Publisher: University of Hawaii Press ISBN: 9780824818791 Category : Sports & Recreation Languages : en Pages : 252
Book Description
Western scholars and educators are generally far less familiar with the samurai in his original-and, ostensibly, primary-role as warrior and masters of arms than in his other functions as landowner, feudal lord, literature, or philosopher. Yet, any attempt to comprehend fully the samurai without considering his military abilities and training (bugei) is futile. With verve and wit, Karl Friday combines the results of nearly two decades of fieldwork and archival research to examine samurai martial culture from a broad perspective: as a historical phenomenon, as a worldview, and as a system of physical, spiritual, and moral education.
Author: James Aitcheson Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc. ISBN: 1402287682 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 485
Book Description
Enter into a ruthless, formidable world, where violent warriors seek honor in holy places and holy men seek glory in dark deeds. As the two opposing forces battle for conquest, the fate of England hangs in the balance January, 1069: Less than three years after the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and the death of the usurper, Harold Godwineson, two thousand Normans march in the depths of winter to subdue the troublesome province of Northumbria. Tancred a Dinant,a loyal and ambitious knight, is among them, hungry for battle, honor, silver, and land. But at Durham, the Normans are ambushed in the streets by English rebels, and Tancred's revered lord Robert de Commines is slain. Badly wounded, Tancred barely escapes with his own life. Bitterly determined to seek vengeance for his lord's murder, the dauntless knight quickly becomes entrenched in secret dealings between a powerful Norman magnate and a shadow from the past. As the Norman and English armies prepare to clash, Tancred uncovers a cunning plot that harks back to the day of Hastings itself. If successful, it threatens to destroy the entire conquest—and change the course of history. The Conquest Series: Sworn Sword (Book 1) The Splintered Kingdom (Book 2) Knights of the Hawk (Book 3)
Author: Hannah Howell Publisher: Zebra Books ISBN: 1420135023 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 293
Book Description
A lady’s secret threatens her land—and reunites her with the man she loves—in this historical Scottish romance by the New York Times bestselling author. Years ago, Lady Annys MacQueen deceived her own people in order to keep her land safe. But now, with Glencullaich on the brink of war, a cruel kinsman threatens to expose the truth. To shield her young son from the sword and her people from devastation, Annys must once again turn to the one man she could never forget... Sir Harcourt Murray lives for duty and honor. So when a laird saved his life, he agreed to father a child with the man’s wife...Lady Annys. When the lovely widow come to him once again, the passion he still feels for her is as all-consuming and perilous as the need to secure her lands. But convincing her that his love is real will require confronting her most wrenching fears—and putting everything they treasure most at stake.
Author: Lisa Silverthorne Publisher: Elusive Blue Fiction ISBN: 1955197644 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 356
Book Description
An Enemies-to-Lovers Forced Proximity Romantasy Suspense Series A century of war. A cursed and dying world. A tenuous truce. And a rigid prophecy that could save it all. Take a steamy, harrowing but steamy carriage ride across Kambria with a brave princess forced to marry an enemy prince and her scorching hot but terrifying outlaw bodyguard. Where two enemies discover true love's spark. TROPES: - Enemies to Lovers - Forbidden Romance - Fated Mates - True Love - Bodyguard - Touch Her and Die - Prophecy Thorn & Blade is the first book in the Curse and Crown series.
Author: David A. Graff Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1108901190 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 854
Book Description
Volume II of The Cambridge History of War covers what in Europe is commonly called 'the Middle Ages'. It includes all of the well-known themes of European warfare, from the migrations of the Germanic peoples and the Vikings through the Reconquista, the Crusades and the age of chivalry, to the development of state-controlled gunpowder-wielding armies and the urban militias of the later middle ages; yet its scope is world-wide, ranging across Eurasia and the Americas to trace the interregional connections formed by the great Arab conquests and the expansion of Islam, the migrations of horse nomads such as the Avars and the Turks, the formation of the vast Mongol Empire, and the spread of new technologies – including gunpowder and the earliest firearms – by land and sea.
Author: Christopher Paolini Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 177488299X Category : Young Adult Fiction Languages : en Pages : 656
Book Description
Master storyteller and internationally bestselling author Christopher Paolini returns to the World of Eragon in this stunning epic fantasy set a year after the events of the Inheritance Cycle. Join Dragon Rider—and fan favorite—Murtagh and his dragon as they confront a perilous new enemy! “Christopher Paolini is a true rarity.” —The Washington Post The world is no longer safe for the Dragon Rider Murtagh and his dragon, Thorn. An evil king has been toppled, and they are left to face the consequences of the reluctant role they played in his reign of terror. Now they are hated and alone, exiled to the outskirts of society. Throughout the land, hushed voices whisper of brittle ground and a faint scent of brimstone in the air—and Murtagh senses that something wicked lurks in the shadows of Alagaësia. So begins an epic journey into lands both familiar and untraveled, where Murtagh and Thorn must use every weapon in their arsenal, from brains to brawn, to find and outwit a mysterious witch. A witch who is much more than she seems. In this gripping novel starring one of the most popular characters from Christopher Paolini’s blockbuster Inheritance Cycle, a Dragon Rider must discover what he stands for in a world that has abandoned him. Murtagh is the perfect book to enter the World of Eragon for the first time . . . or to joyfully return.
Author: Karl F. Friday
Author: Karl F. Friday
Author: Alex Bledsoe
Author: Ashley McLeo
Author: Roland Green
Author: Karl F. Friday
Author: James Aitcheson
Author: Hannah Howell
Author: Lisa Silverthorne
Author: David A. Graff
Author: Christopher Paolini