Instruct: Classify a given review as either positive or negative.
Query: Dull, Clinical, Passionless

I got this book with high hopes from the title. Now I can say save your money. This thing was so dry and dull I kept looking back at the cover to make sure it was the same book. Secret history "of the Sword"? There was hardly any mention of "swords" in the book, it was a miss-mash ad hoc collection of disjointed essays and misplaced humor with no connecting theme. It's really only about a fencing take on everything, not at all about arms and armor and not even European martial arts. It reads like a college textbook throughout and the author's over intellectualizing belittles the reader as if they are beneath his "wisdom". Amberger brooks no dissent with his polemics. As fencing history it's sometimes of middling interest, but unless you're one of those people who think that sword fighting began with the rapier and foil you will find this dull, dull, and dull.