American Rifle: A Biography

“The title of Alexander Rose's marvelous book says it all: Although American Rifle is ostensibly about the history of a piece of machinery, a tool, a killing instrument, it is only in America that the rifle has become an ineradicable part of the culture and can be written about as if it were a living person. Like David McCullough in The Great Bridge, Rose has the rare ability to make technology come alive even for the non-technology-minded. He is not only a good historian but also a gifted storyteller.”—Michael Korda, Washington Post

Drawing on the words of soldiers, inventors, and presidents, based on extensive new research, and encompassing the Revolution to the present day, American Rifle is a balanced history of firearms technology and its place in American culture. We witness the high-stakes international race to produce gunpowder . . . how the mysterious arts of metallurgy, gunsmithing, and mass-production played vital roles in the creation of American economic supremacy . . . and the ways in which the bitter rivalry between armsmakers shaped diplomacy and influenced the most momentous decisions in American history.