Doran's Science of Self Defense

Not much is known about Bart J. Doran save what he writes in this 1889 boxing manual. Ah, but what a manual! Doran claims to have been an instructor of Boxing at the University of Michigan and at clubs in Memphis, Cincinnati, and even Canada. He writes for new boxers with no prior instruction or access to a regular instructor with an emphasis at covering information left out or poorly instructed by other "famous" writers. Doran includes a tantalizing early look at a power generation technique which the great Jack Dempsey would later dub the shoulder whirl. Further he includes instruction for a "wall pad"; what readers today would identify as a Makiwara, fully 10 years before E.W. Barton-Wright introduced Japanese martial arts to the West. Packed with 36 digitally restored illustration, instruction on bag punching, a dumb-bell workout, and a unique version of the American Fair Play Rules, this rare manual is sure to please modern martial artists and boxing historians alike.