Mr. Gatling's Terrible Marvel: The Gun That Changed Everything and the Misunderstood Genius Who Invented It - Softcover

Keller, Julia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143115642 ISBN 13: 9780143115649

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2009

Synopsis

A provocative look at the life and times of the man who created the original weapon of mass destruction

Drawing on her investigative and literary talents, Julia Keller offers a riveting account of the invention of the world's first working machine gun. Through her portrait of its misunderstood creator, Richard Jordan Gatling-who naively hoped that the overwhelming effectiveness of a multiple-firing weapon would save lives by decreasing the size of armies and reducing the number of soldiers needed to fight-Keller draws profound parallels to the scientists who would unleash America's atomic arsenal half a century later. The Gatling gun, in its combination of ingenuity, idealism, and destructive power, perfectly exemplifies the paradox of America's rise in the nineteenth century to a world superpower.

About this title

About the Author:

Julia Keller is a Pulitzer Prize–winning write, educator, and former journalist. Schools she has taught at include Princeton University, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Chicago. She has served four times as a juror for the Pulitzer Prizes, and won a Pulitzer Prize of her own in 2004 for her work with the Chicago Tribune. She is the author of the nonfiction book Mr. Gatling’s Terrible Marvel and several works of fiction.

From AudioFile:

The creation of the first machine gun, after the Civil War, is documented in ornate detail in this fascinating account of inventor Richard Gatling's most innovative creation. Though it's the gun that unquestionably changed the world--for better or worse--the man behind the machine is also profiled, due to his relative obscurity. Narrator Norman Dietz delivers the text with an unbiased voice capable of garnering high praise for Gatling's adroitness while also inducing an alarming sense of regret and penitence at the weapon's effects. There exists a subtle irony in Dietz's tone through much of the reading as he relates Gatling's original intention of creating a weapon that would actually save lives by removing soldiers from harm's way. Thus, Deitz jousts left and right with ideology as he passionately relates the "terrible paradox" of the Gatling gun. L.B. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0143115642
• ISBN 13: 9780143115649
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320