American Rifle: A Biography
George Washington insisted that his portrait be painted with one. Daniel Boone created a legend with one. Abraham Lincoln shot them on the White House lawn. And Teddy Roosevelt had his specially customized.
In this first-of-its-kind book, historian Alexander Rose delivers a colorful, engrossing biography of an American icon: the rifle. Drawing on the words of foot soldiers, inventors, and presidents, based on extensive new research, and spanning from the Revolution to the present day, American Rifle is a balanced, wonderfully entertaining history of the rifle and its place in American culture.Amazon.com Review
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American Rifle: A Biography
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The book concentrates on how armories and private companies responded to the US Army’s evolving, and sometimes conflicting, rifle requirements. The prose is dry, scholarly and probably best suited for those with a passion for the subject matter who can appreciate the author’s detailed research. But as a general interest reader and occasional weekend shooter, I found the book to be rough sledding, and was ready for it to be over 1/2 way through.
Rating: 3 / 5
I’m surprised at all the rave reviews of this book, some by readers who clearly know guns. I was expecting something great, I guess. Rose is a thorough researcher and does a good job of bringing together a history of (mainly) military U.S. rifles, but the book is marred by occasional heavy and rather self-indulgent irony directed towards some of the men who figure in this history, and, even more surprisingly, by what seems to be an unfamiliarity with firearms lore and nomenclature (e.g., referring to cartridges as “bullets,” and other such gaffes). Probably worth it, but could have been better with some editing. I also wonder, has the guy been around guns?
Rating: 3 / 5
I enjoyed the book, a breezy read on a subject dear to my heart. Rose’s style is similar to Edwin Tunis, within the pages of whose book “Weapons” I first cut my teeth some forty-six years ago, initiating a life-long pursuit of the subject, and to which I returned when reading “American Rifle” for reference.
Two amongst several errors or illogical descriptions, Rose describes Forsyth hunting birds with a ball, not shot, and refers to a percussion cap as a nipple- minor problems, but they don’t build trust in the text.
However, glaringly, a photo of a German 1888 Commission Rifle and its enbloc clip are noted as the Mauser System and charging device, of which they are neither.
Also, whereas I can’t back it up, Colt being cited as not having rifling machines capable of cutting anything tighter than a 18-or-16-to-one twist and thereby applying those rates to M-16’s seems rather far fetched- my confidence in the information being conditioned by what I have previously mentioned.
Rating: 3 / 5
This is a Kindle version, and my husband is enjoying it now. He really loves history, and reads it to me all the time. He’s learning alot of things he didn’t know about rifles.
Rating: 5 / 5
Other than Native American warriors, who are fairly well represented here, no other soldier on earth has ever been expected to bear as much individual responsibility for the conduct of battle than the American soldier. The primary tool of the soldier is the rifle, and what rifle that soldier carries has decided the outcome of the majority of our engagements from colonial days to Afghanistan. Rose has hit upon this fact to produce a book that works on many levels. It is far more than a gun book. It is a window into American history.
My only reservation: Rose slows down to offer insight, story, character and politics in some places ( very succesfully), and fairly flies across the surface in others- American Rifle, at its weak points, is like the old timer’s saying about the Powder River, a mile wide and an inch deep. But overall, it is a strong, revealing and entertaining history.
Hal Herring
author of:
Famous Firearms of the Old West: From Wild Bill Hickok’s Colt Revolvers to Geronimo’s Winchester, Twelve Guns That Shaped Our History
Rating: 4 / 5