The Gun - Softcover

Chivers, C J

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743271734 ISBN 13: 9780743271738

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2011

Synopsis

At a secret arms-design contest in Stalin s Soviet Union, army technicians submitted a stubby rifle with a curved magazine. Dubbed the AK-47, it was selected as the Eastern Bloc s standard arm. Scoffed at in the Pentagon as crude and unimpressive, it was in fact a breakthrough a compact automatic that could be mastered by almost anyone, last decades in the field, and would rarely jam. Manufactured by tens of millions in planned economies, it became first an instrument of repression and then the most lethal weapon of the Cold War. Soon it was in the hands of terrorists. In a searing examination of modern conflict and official folly, C. J. Chivers mixes meticulous historical research, investigative reporting, and battlefield reportage to illuminate the origins of the world s most abundant firearm and the consequences of its spread. The result, a tour de force of history and storytelling, sweeps through the miniaturization and distribution of automatic firepower, and puts an iconic object in fuller context than ever before. " The Gun "dismantles myths as it moves from the naive optimism of the Industrial Revolution through the treacherous milieu of the Soviet Union to the inside records of the Taliban. Chivers tells of the 19th-century inventor in Indianapolis who designs a Civil War killing machine, insisting that more-efficient slaughter will save lives. A German attache who observes British machine guns killing Islamic warriors along the Nile advises his government to amass the weapons that would later flatten British ranks in World War I. In communist Hungary, a locksmith acquires an AK-47 to help wrest his country from the Kremlin s yoke, beginning a journey to the gallows. The Pentagon suppresses the results of firing tests on severed human heads that might have prevented faulty rifles from being rushed to G.I.s in Vietnam. In Africa, a millennial madman arms abducted children and turns them on their neighbors, setting his country ablaze. Neither pro-gun nor anti

About this title

Review:

..". one of the finest war correspondents of his generation..." --The Wilson Quarterly

..".bold history... ...Mr. Chivers the enthusiast and expert shares the page with Mr. Chivers the historian and journalist -- the expert dealing well with the detailed mechanics of his subject, the journalist at other times brilliantly illuminating the book with highly effective vignettes of human courage, ingenuity and, mostly, suffering." --The New York Times

..".magisterial..." --The Atlantic

..".succeeds admirably by putting the gun into its social, historical and technological context in an evocative narrative." --The Washington Post

..".a compelling perspective on 20th-century warfare..." --Slate.com

..".for disciplined and devoted scholars of the history of modern war, politics, and ideology, and how the automatic weapon has forced the transformation of the essence of combat... ...a colossal effort... ...appears to have created a history-laced masterpiece." --Marine Corps Gazette

From the Back Cover:

'With impelling force, C. J. Chivers tells a remarkable story of how this one, superbly reliable firearm became the most abundant ever produced, and was to exceed the consequences even of Soviet nuclear know-how in the Cold War, and beyond' Alistair Horne, author of The Price of Glory and A Savage War of Peace

'Dazzling ... Startling ... The Gun does exactly what the best art history or music writing does-it opens our eyes to see anew the familiar' Doug Stanton, author of Horse Soldiers

'The Gun is for those who wonder how we fight today and why we fight that way. C. J. Chivers has given us a seminal work' James Bradley, author of Flags of Our Fathers

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0743271734
• ISBN 13: 9780743271738
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 496