The Gun

C. J. Chivers

ISBN 10: 0743270762 / ISBN 13: 9780743270762

Published by Simon & Schuster, 2010

About this Item

DJ in archival cover. Signed by the author on the title page.

Seller Inventory # 008222

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Gun
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0743270762
• ISBN 13: 9780743270762
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

The AK-47, or 'Kalashnikov', is the most abundant and efficient firearm on earth. It is so light it can be used by children. It has transformed the way we fight wars, and its story is the chilling story of modern warfare. C.J. Chivers's extraordinary new book tells an alternative history of the world as seen through these terrible weapons. He traces them back to their origins in the early experiments of Gatling and Maxim, and examines the first appearance of the machine-gun - a weapon that first created the 'asymmetric' colonial massacres enjoyed by the British in Africa but which then led to the nightmarish stalemate of the First World War. The quest for ever greater firepower and mobility culminated in the AK-47 at the beginning of the Cold War, a weapon so remarkable that, over sixty years after its invention and having broken free of all state control, it has become central to civil wars all over the world. The machine-gun reused many innovations associated with the new agricultura

About the Author

C. J. Chivers is a senior writer for The New York Times and is a former Times Moscow bureau chief. A onetime Marine Corps infantry captain, he received a National Magazine Award for his reconstruction in Esquire of the terrorist siege in a Russian school and shared a Pulitzer Prize for coverage in the Times of combat in Afghanistan. His war reportage from Iraq and Afghanistan was selected by New York University as one of the Top Ten Works of Journalism of the Decade.