>>63957282
Elmslie is way better than Oakeshitt. Also, spears are always superior to swords unless the opposing lines of men are lined up across from one another along a hallway. Swords are basically back up guns, the Kel-Tec P32 of the battlefield. They were used in ceremonies because using a spear would have been dangerous. Swords weren't considered dangerous compared with swords. And all the sword books and sword schools from back then that everyone obsesses over now? European wuxia. It's basically dancing. I know you've seen a bunch of historically inaccurate movies with swords in them and now believe that all these fictitious modern portrayals of swords are what history was like, but men who carried swords were like 19th century officers who only carried pistols - it was to inspire confidence in their troops by entering battle with only a symbolic arm, basically unarmed.