This two-volume reference presents concise descriptions of martial topics based on sound research principles. The entries by academics and active martial practitioners provide an introduction to the growing scholarship in the subject and include discussion of a broad spectrum of traditions, with a focus upon those systems that exist outside contemporary military technology such as Japanese samurai, American frontier gunslingers, and 19th-century European duelists, as well as the sociocultural influences that have led to changing fashions in modern military hand-to-hand combat. Topics are arranged alphabetically.