The Rise and Evolution of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: From Vale-Tudo, to Carlson Gracie, to its Democratization

The Rise and Evolution of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a fantastic book that should be treasured by the BJJ community. It is an educational and entertaining read that made me laugh out loud on multiple occasions. Anyone interested in learning more about the history of BJJ would be wise to read it. Throughout this book the author Robert Drysdale does an exceptional job of disputing some of the false narratives that have been told to the American people regarding the history of BJJ. Doing so he highlights the significant contributions of Carlson and Rolls Gracie. He even makes a compelling argument that Carlson Gracie is the father of modern BJJ and if you train BJJ there is a strong probability that your lineage can be traced back to the academy Carlson opened up in 1972 and later shared with his brother Rolls. Robert makes such claims by reviewing historical documents from the Brazilian National Library and by interviewing people (i.e., martial artists, journalists) who were witnesses to these events when they occurred. Like most people who knew Carlson I can attest to the accuracy with which Carlson is portrayed in this book, particularly with regard to his competitiveness and generosity. For example, I specifically remember a time in Chicago when Carlson was at a restaurant with his students. After one of these students told Carlson he liked his watch, Carlson took off his watch, gave it to this student, and refused to take it back.More than just a martial art’s book, The Rise and Evolution of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a book on Brazilian history and culture. I found the chapter on malandragem to be fascinating and I liked hearing about the cultural differences between Brazil and the USA. I also enjoyed hearing Robert talk about his own personal experience with BJJ, and the cultural variables that attracted him to BJJ in the first place (e.g., pit-boys). Toward the end of the book Robert gives his opinion on the current state of BJJ in America and the direction it is heading, for better or for worse. Although you do not necessarily have to read this book from start to finish, I highly recommend that you do so in order to truly appreciate the timeline of events and the author’s message. My only critique, albeit minor, is that there are a number of misspellings and grammatical errors throughout the book. Although this does not diminish the book’s content or message, I do hope these errors are corrected.

If you’re interested in learning more about Brazilian jiu jitsu history outside the heavily biased Helio Gracie Narrative, then this is your book. I thoroughly loved the interview style of this piece of work. The interviews, from those who have been there, must be documented for generations to come! I applaud the author for taking the time to organize and write this down! Thank you Mr. Drysdale!

this is an outstanding book on history of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Professor Drydale is an excellent writer and storyteller, and this book is a page turner. I for one was totally engrossed in wanting to read what was next to come. As a practitioner of the art this book made my day. one will not regret this book's purchase.Norman

Unbelievable job by Robert DRYSDALE. So many questions were answered thanks to his research for this book. This is a MUST READ for anyone who trains.

If you're into history and want something that tries to be as unbiased as possible when it comes to the roots and figures in Jiu-jitsu, The Rise and Evolution of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a great buy!

Calling this book The Rise and Evolution of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a little far fetched when it almost EXCLUSIVELY focus on Carlson Gracie. The general style of the book is similar to Robert Drysdale’s previous book Opening Closed Guard, which I found challenging to read in the “interview” style he uses. That and the obvious bias and what appears to be hatred towards Helio Gracie.During the introduction portion of the book, I know I was in for another heavily biased read when the author spent a couple pages defending his previous work and referenced the flattering remarks he made for George, Carlson, Royce and Carlos Gracie….He then goes on to say “ I am perfectly willing to acknowledge that I may be unaware of my own biases, just not willing to acknowledge that I don’t try to correct them as I become aware of them.” I continued reading on, none the less, in hopes of learning something.Not knowing the full content of the interviews conducted for this book, i would hope there was more to the interview than what was edited into the book. It is almost like the interviews were conducted over text messaging, that is how brief and awkward they are.While there is some really good information in the book, I find it absolutely ridiculous the author would have the gall to cite his previous book, (that was heavily biased) as valid reference material. It is a conflict of interest and just poor etiquette to do that.I hope that any more Jiu jitsu history books take a more unbiased approach, or simply come right out and say “this is going to be heavily biased and don’t refer to this as an actual history or reference book.”

The combination of history, interview, and rare photos makes this book super-cool reading for all fans of BJJ and MMA. I particularly liked the focus on Carlson Gracie who fought 18 Brazilian Vale Tudo in the 1950’s and 60’s. His 17 wins still make him the most successful Gracie fighter to this day. He innovated many of the MMA training practices we now take for granted.

I sort of wished for more interviews.There are a lot of people like Scotty Nelson, Pete the Greek or other brazilians who were with Carlson when he moved to the US (Rodrigo Medeiros, Julio Foca) and I really would have liked to read about what these post BTT split Carlson guys had to say.If you go online, you can find a lot of Carlson stories, i know they are just stories and perhaps Drysdale did not want to write about personal anecdotes, but i find them interesting and would have like those stories to be filtered and commented by Drysdale who have a better insight about certain things.Anywyas, if the Drysdale reads amazon reviews, i want to congratulate him for what he is doing for the history of BJJ.