The first volume of Handfuls of History primarily covered firearms, the history of their development and their impact on the course of human history. This volume is about human artifacts that have an edge and/or a point. Most of them would be classified as weapons but others perhaps might more aptly be characterized as tools. Some are objects that have evolved over time away from being weapons toward being symbols of power, cultural status, or even magic. Some are connected with the mainstream of Western military history, carried along with the pistols, muskets, or rifles covered in Volume 1, especially the bayonets which were introduced alongside the rifles and muskets they were intended to augment. The other main type of item this volume covers are what could be considered “ethnographic,” in that they carry both cultural and historical significance.