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American Rifle: A Biography | 
 enlarge | Author: Alexander Rose
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Category: Book
List Price: $30.00
Buy New: $18.00
You Save: $12.00 (40%)
New (37) Used (9) from $18.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 788
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.5
ISBN: 0553805177
Dewey Decimal Number: 683.422
EAN: 9780553805178
ASIN: 0553805177
Publication Date: October 21, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: A nice clean hardcover, in excellent dj, of the 2008 Delacorte Press 1st edition (as pictured). No marks to text. Ready to ship.
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Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best of the Month, October 2008: Given the title, American Rifle is a book that many potential readers might dismiss without a thought. Don't do it: Alexander Rose's peculiar "biography" is not written for gun enthusiasts--though they'll certainly enjoy it--but for anyone interested American history from George Washington to the Wild West to Iraq. Drawing on original sources ranging from Samuel Colt to the soldiers who depend on the weapon the most, this book is an exhaustive history of the rifle's place in American culture, not only as an instrument of war, but also as a driver of technological innovation and advances in mass production that helped propel the United States into its role as both a military and economic superpower. Once you start, American Rifle will have to be pried from your cold, dead hands before you put it down. --Jon Foro
Product Description
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.
Now, 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 soldiers, inventors, and presidents, based on extensive new research, and encompassing the Revolution to the present day, American Rifle is a balanced, wonderfully entertaining history of this most essential firearm and its place in American culture.
In the eighteenth century American soldiers discovered that they no longer had to fight in Europe’s time-honored way. With the evolution of the famed “Kentucky” Rifle—a weapon slow to load but devastatingly accurate in the hands of a master—a new era of warfare dawned, heralding the birth of the American individualist in battle.
In this spirited narrative, Alexander Rose reveals the hidden connections between the rifle’s development and our nation’s history. We witness the high-stakes international competition to produce the most potent 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 bitter infighting between rival arms makers shaped diplomacy and influenced the most momentous decisions in American history. And we learn why advances in rifle technology and ammunition triggered revolutions in military tactics, how ballistics tests—frequently bizarre—were secretly conducted, and which firearms determined the course of entire wars.
From physics to geopolitics, from frontiersmen to the birth of the National Rifle Association, from the battles of the Revolution to the war in Iraq, American Rifle is a must read for history buffs, gun collectors, soldiers—and anyone who seeks to understand the dynamic relationship between the rifle and this nation’s history.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
An excellent biography November 16, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have collected, read and shot for the last 70 years but this is the best book on the subject of the American rifle I have encountered. It goes into the history of the long arm in general but concentrates on the American military experience. It shows the influence of the development of arms production on all areas of manufacturing. It also gives an excellent description of the influence of politics and personalities on the operations of the arsenals and of the military theories behind the arguments for the choice of single-shot versus magazine rifles as standard for the armed forces. I must admit that I did find one example of what must have been a typo on page 197 . The caliber chosen for the American team in the first Creedmoor match is described as .45-550-90 (bore diameter-weight of black powder charge-weight of bullet). 550 grains weight of black powder would have been quite spectacular! Obviously the powder charge weight and that of the bullet have been transposed.
Delightful dollop of American history ... November 13, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The transformation of the American rifle literally changed the course of history. Not all change comes easily nor intentionally. Men were continually tinkering with their weapons to make them more efficient. Christian Friedrich Schoeenbein had been toying with the idea that treating cotton with nitric and sulfuric acids might give the bang needed to replace gunpowder with less bulk. When the wife was away, he apparently worked his experiment in their kitchen. After spilling some nitric acid, he mopped it up with the wife's apron and hid it near the stove to dry. Well, the resulting explosion a while later may not have thrilled her much or did much for her apron, but guncotton was a new and much welcomed propellant. It was not noted whether or not he purchased her a new apron.
Producing a rifle in early American was a lengthy and arduous task. Even the apprenticeship of eight years insured that what weapons were produced would end up in the hands of the wealthy. George Washington was so proud of his that it was painted into one of his portraits. Martha's money, he may have figured, was being well spent. The fascination with the rifle was and is continuous. The American Rifle Association is 125 years old, growing strong and a much feared political force to be reckoned with in this day and age. Dismayed that their troops couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, the association decided rather late in the game they had just better get a group together to "promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis." Alexander Rose, military historian and journalist, has written an absolutely amazing and comprehensive history of the AMERICAN RIFLE: A Biography. If there is anything at all to be known about the rifle, it's in this volume.
As someone who was unfamiliar with anything Alexander Rose had written prior to the American Rifle, I was unprepared, yet very pleasantly surprised, at the depth and delightful dollop of American history I found in its pages. The book was extremely well written and, as a huge fan of a decent index, was certainly not disappointed with his reference material (the complete bibliography is listed on the author's site). For one who is not very interested in weaponry at all, I found this to be a popcorn page turner. I popped a lot of popcorn and spent many evenings avidly reading some very interesting tidbits of American lore. The hardcover is a tad pricey, but then again if you want quality you simply have to pay for it
Deb Fowler (Roundtable Reviews)
 A Valuable Contribution November 9, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
It was inevitable that I would compare "American Rifle: A Biography" to Philip Sharpe's encyclopedic classic "The Rifle in America." The two are very different but complementary books, as is Rose's work complementary to a great many other books on America's various military rifles. Rose begins with the introduction of the rifled long gun to the American colonies by German immigrants and its subsequent integration into the core of the American character and military service. Rose then focuses on the American service rifle, making the cover illustration, of an engraved Winchester lever-action rifle, a bit misleading. Rather than replicate or collate masses of technical data, Rose, instead, offers a behind the scenes look at how and why the various rifles were adopted in military service, with great detail about the personalities involved. In fact, historian Rose is a bit lacking on the technical side, with minor errors such as the use of "bullet" for "cartridge" and "clip" for "magazine," at times when such errors would confuse the uninitiated. As a storyteller, Rose tends to skip back and forth a bit, a trait that would have been well counterbalanced by the inclusion, preferably inside the front and rear covers, of a timeline of the developments of firearms and ammunition. As a single source on the history of American military rifles, "American Rifle" could be a bit misleading but, at the risk of sounding trite, is a valuable addition to the library of any serious scholar of "the gun." (The notes alone run 63 pages and the bibliography is so lengthy that author and publisher elected to post it on the author's website [http://www.alexrose.com/RW/Home.html], rather than print it in the book.) I would not quibble over the list price of $30.00 and consider it a bargain at Amazon.com's price of $19.80.
A wonderful read November 3, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
This is not the first book to examine Americans and their relationship with guns but the well known scandal souroundingArming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture means that a new book was needed. This book is not about all of the gun culture in the U.S or the second amendment, that can be found elsewhere, this is about the American rifle, a weapon that many readers will be surprised to learn is unqiuely American.
It begins with the revolutionary period and Germans in Pennsylvania creating the first Kentucky Rifle. then we are taken through to the Civil War, Gerneral Pershing, the American Marine Corp, the decision to replace the Springfield M1903 with the M1 Garand (and M1 Carbine), the first semi-automatic rifle to be generally issues to U.S infantry units. It follows the M1 through the Second World War, Korean war and into Vietnam. It was replaced, starting in 1964, with the M16, which is still in use today as the M4 carbine.
This is a brilliant book that is much more than a book about guns, it is the biography of a nation and the arsenal of democracy, the rifles, that protect it. It is about the military and civilian attachment to the rifle. It is about culture and war. Perhaps it is a testament to America and her heritage that one can tell the story of the nation in such a unique way, and this book and its author are certainly the ones to do it. A wonderful read.
Seth J. Frantzman
Rifles and History October 21, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
With American Rifle: A Biography Mr. Rose has written a detailed, engaging, concise history of not only the rifle in America but also of the United States of America.
To understand the history of the United States of America one gains many insights by reading American Rifle. To quote General Pershing from the book, "You must not forget that the rifle is distinctively an American weapon." This is bolstered by none other then John Adams who first used the word "rifle" in a 1775 letter to his beloved Abigail stating that he had recently heard of a "particular kind of musket, called a rifle...". The book more then explains why these statements are true.
The book starts with the early German immigrant Jager makers, who settled mainly in Pennsylvania creating the first Kentucky rifles; the uniquely American weapon which changed history. (You have to read the book for the theories as to why those rifles became known as Kentucky rifles.)
With thorough research and a clean, linear, easy to follow writing style the author takes us from those early days of flintlocks at Bunker Hill and the other key American Revolution battle sites onto the fields of fire of today in Iraq where the M4 (little brother of the M-16) gets the job done as we wait to see what the next major innovation in rifles will bring.
Most of the major men, firearm makers and weapons which were pivotal in the history of the rifle are covered. Myths are dispelled and interesting nuggets of fact are dispersed throughout the volume to reward the reader.
The book appeals not only to those interested in weapons and their history but readers of military history or anyone wanting to know more about the history of the USA in general. It also clearly shows the history of the industrial revolution and how gun production often also drove the other goods which became mass produced.
There have been many volumes written on the development of rifles and other firearms. Mr. Rose has earned his position by writing as interesting and as readable a book which has ever been penned on the subject. The book is more then worth reading.
American Rifle: A Biography also understands the philosophy behind the inscription which a Yale class had inscribed onto a Sharps rifle which they presented to a local infantry captain before the Civil War:
"Ultima Ratio Liberarum" - "the final argument in liberty".
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